Online Media Tools

Community = (Me + My Friends) x (You + Your Friends) x (Your Friends and Their Friends)

Wednesday, April 28, 2010 by Andy McCann

"We were born to unite with our fellow men, and to join in community with the human race." -- Cicero

A friend recently asked me what all the sensation was around Foursquare and Gowalla. These location based services (LBS) now gaining serious traction in the social media space. This same friend had asked me the same question a little over two years ago when I started actively participating and raving about Twitter and Facebook.

The first time I was asked this question, I initially struggled to answer it in a way that would easily explain the excitement and draw of using an online service to tell other people what I was doing, where I was eating, or why I think that (so and so's latest article) was so interesting.

However, this time the answer came to me rather quickly. "It's all about our interaction with our communities. Mine and yours and how they overlap!" When I see a friend write that the Thai place down the street has some kickin' sushi, I give that more credence than the billboard I see driving to the office. When I see one of your friends talk passionately about their son's kung fu instructor, I take that as a more qualified reference than a yellow pages ad.

So what are we really seeking when we post our latest thoughts on Facebook and Twitter? Or when we check out where our friends are checking in on Foursquare or Gowalla? Are we just vain and think that what we are doing is SO important? Or are we just seeking a way to connect in an ever busy, ever moving, ever expanding world?

We have friends and family and colleagues and people we just admire with whom we go days, weeks or even years without actually laying eyes on each other. Or even more rare, actually sitting down and catching up on what has been going on in our lives, our careers, our family, friends, churches, baseball leagues … our communities.

Thanks to these online tools, I get to keep up with a larger number of people than ever possible before. And I learn more about their communities and the people and places in them. This in turn, expands my own known universe. It makes me bigger than I could be on my own. My boundaries are constantly expanded, and in a way that is relevant and meaningful to me and my friends (and your friends and their friends). Growth is good, is it not?

I live and work in Atlanta. I like to enjoy the occasional tasty local brew, listen to great live music and I also just so happen to really get geeky about the latest and greatest innovations in the .NET developer community. Wonder how many different ways those communities intersect and how they are related? Wouldn't be a cool thing if I could go somewhere and see my friends in these different circles talk about these things that are interesting to me and that we have in common. What if I can be the catalyst to help bring these different communities together in new and interesting ways?

One of the most interesting ways that new media tools have affected me and my community are when my online and offline worlds converge. Last November, I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to host and moderate a panel for the TAG Consulting Society on "Marketing Your Practice to Build Loyalty and Brand Awareness". I was able to engage 2 panel members through my offline community and reached out to my online community to find the remaining two panel members.

Thanks to my network of friends, I was introduced to two extremely smart and engaging panelists who helped round out a wonderful panel. (Thanks again to @lisa_sherman77 and @johnreed3000). Another example of where my friends reach out to their friends who then become my friends who then can become your friends too.

I would like to extend this opportunity for us to become part of each other's community. Follow me on Twitter @andrewmccann or on Facebook or on LinkedIn. From there you can find me on Foursquare and Gowalla and whatever the next big thing is that allows me to connect with my friends and your friends and my friends with your friends.

We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men.
-- Herman Melville

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?

If You Already Know Everything About Digital Marketing, Don't Read This...

Wednesday, April 14, 2010 by Frank Radice

To make your business thrive you need to do more than just think new! Having a Twitter account and a Facebook page is good, but knowing what to do with them is better. Having an iPad and an iPhone app is good, but having ones that really fill a consumer need is better.

Traditional advertising has becoming increasingly inefficient, so how do you effectively reach your customers today without breaking the bank?

The Big Idea: Own Your Edge!
Case Studies in Music & Publishing

Forrester Research shows music industry sales have dropped 50% in the last decade, from 14.6B in 1999 to 6.3B in 2009. The Publishers Bureau reports that for the first quarter of this year, magazine ad pages fell 9.4% to 34,800 pages compared to the same quarter last year.

Clearly both industries are in a state of flux. These stats are stunning, but they pose a great up side for new technology, social media and digital marketing. So what will these two industries look like in five years and what can they learn from each other? Will publishers charge for on-line versions of their magazines? What can the music business do to stem the tide when their sales continue to decline?

Both industries have to contend with a world where people are more and more consuming on-line content for free. The iPad alone won't save magazines, but it's a start. There is no doubt that publishers need to harness the power of this new device immediately.

This is where publishing can learn a thing or two from the music business. The iPod and iTunes saved an industry on life-support. Apple clearly helped change the paradigm. Ever since Napster came into the lexicon the industry was slow to embrace it but Apple made it easier to buy music than to steal it, and that should help do the same for magazines.

Direct sale of content has always been the easiest way to determine the success or failure of any business, but now there's more!

Now is the time to foster B2B strategic relationships and grow your brand community if you want your business to really survive.

"Own your Edge" everywhere you can. Having the best product in the store isn't enough, you have to have the best communities online. Twitter, Foursquare and Facebook... everywhere!

Now, promotion and marketing is as monetizable as the product being marketed, and new technology and social media are the tools to success going forward.

Last week The Financial Times announced it is using Foursquare to target a new younger consumer, and the Warner Music Group has started-up an in-house social media team.

So it's clear some music and publishing businesses are going in the right direction, that is significant, and an understanding of what they are trying to do is sure to open up the door to the companies that have been reluctant to try something new.

Even if entrants into a space aren't paid subscribers, get subscribers wherever you can. Extend the brand, generate awareness through reach and frequency across all platforms, and the money will follow. Plus these new subscribers will be your best brand evangelists.

But everyone wants an immediate ROI and these tactics alone won't provide that.

The secret sauce then is to add a layer of strategic partnering to the mix. Create strategic B2B relationships and enhance the bottom line at the same time you are creating a base of engagement in the social sphere while better utilizing the new technologies.

It's all about creative thinking in the digital space. The Mantra should be "Think Better!"

And that's why flux in the marketplace is a good thing for digital marketers.

If you use the new tools effectively, create strategic partnerships while creating a loyal brand community, you will "Own your Edge."

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.

The Secrets of Online Video: REVEALED!

Wednesday, February 10, 2010 by Doug Dimon

I've decided to break with the tradition of mystical subterfuge that we creative types like to use to keep our methods secret. I’m going to come clean about the three easy steps to create successful online video marketing. I know this will likely get me scratched off the list at all the best industry events, but I can no longer hold my tongue in good conscience.

Step1: come up with an engaging concept.
Step2: produce a well-made, compelling video.
Step 3: post the engaging and compelling video.

Yea, I know… not much of a secret. The truth is people seem to view online videos as some sort of crazy alternative marketing. It’s as if there is some secret ingredient that gets sprinkled over the computer while posting that makes it different than something you would see on television. The truth is that it is not the content that is different, but rather how it is consumed. Television is a fairly passive medium and people are more likely to watch something simply because it is in front of them. This is changing thanks to the DVR culture, but it is still largely true. Viewing a video online, however, is a much more deliberate act. People have to want to watch it. And, hopefully, they will pass it on to others so they can watch it. For this to happen it needs to really be engaging. Clearly the intent of all brand marketing is to engage the consumer, but online video needs to be or you won’t have an audience.

This fact makes it all the more absurd that many people believe that successful online videos can be created by anyone with a webcam. Certainly, there have been many such “successful” videos (witness the most viewed Youtube video ever), but this is the exception not the rule, and is rarely true when it comes to brand marketing. I’m not saying that you need to have a million dollar budget, or hire the top Hollywood director, but you do have to approach it with clear creative intent, even if the end result is unscripted, or “low tech”. The principles that hold true for any successful film or video still apply: good narrative (whether plot or visual) and solid construction. Brands would never air some poorly produced piece with half-baked creative on television, yet they all too often treat their online video offerings as amateur hour.

Your video has to connect with your audience on some level, through humor, compassion, awe, outrage, etc. It has to offer the viewer some intrinsic value that will create an attachment and drive them to become a brand advocate. Once again, this is not a new marketing concept. What is new, is the tremendous advantage online video offers in this endeavor. At its core, a viral video is a social media tool. People love to share things with their friends and online video gives them the tools to go beyond the water cooler chat (did you see that spot on TV last night with the blue thing… hilarious!) to actually presenting your video to a person that trusts them. This is why an online viewing number that is a fraction of the viewers of a spot during a primetime show represents a much bigger win for the brand: the online viewers are active participants. Do it right and those participants become advocates.

There are specific factors that do distinguish online video from a televised spot: no length requirements, resolution and audio playback quality, trafficking to specific market, ease of deployment, etc. But do not let those differences cloud the fact that at it still needs to be approached with the same level of detail and planning as any on-air piece. Just because it is simple and inexpensive to get your video on the web, don’t treat like a second class marketing strategy. It has massive potential to influence your customers.

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.

Drinking From The Fire Hose

Tuesday, October 27, 2009 by Tom Kirszenstein

I've been hearing the phrase "Drinking from the fire hose" more often than usual lately. The curious thing is that it's coming from Interactive Media Professionals (including myself), as much as from end users. With the exponential growth of the Internet and its related technologies, we now have access to more information, in more places, in more ways than ever before. Web 2.0, Social Media, Application Software Development, Mobile and related technologies are having a profound impact on Interactive Marketing Strategies. Many agencies are capable at traditional & online media marketing, or they may have strong technical capabilities--but, it is rare to find an agency that has all of these abilities and deep technical resources such as Definition 6.

To follow the fire hose analogy--anyone faced with that situation would get out of the way. The high volume and velocity of incoming data require some type of control and direction to be useful to ourselves, our clients, and our business. Developers, interactive designers, and marketers are faced with the same questions as consumers--how to manage the onslaught of incoming information. Interactive Ad Agencies are faced with the additional responsibility of creating new tools to distribute information in a clear and meaningful way. These interactive professionals are the firemen holding the hose.

At the height of the dotcom boom, an old colleague used to remind me that technology is simply a way of doing things. As the old broadcast model of advertising becomes obsolete, and user discovery & social interaction drive engagement, the function of marketing itself must now change to meet these communication challenges. This new model now poses new questions about where marketers should be, how they communicate, and when that interaction will occur. I still remember the first 7-Eleven convenience store that opened in my neighborhood, and discovering that name comes from its operating hours—--it was a big deal to be open until 11PM! Marketers didn’t create more ads to attract customers from 9-5, they simply changed to meet customers on their own terms.

Integrated interactive marketing campaigns must be open and immersed in the culture to create value and be relevant. Successful marketers are positioned alongside their target market, making use of tactics such as Branded Content and Branded Entertainment to engage the user, enabling them to discover that value on their own, and decide what truly fulfills their needs. This is not an easy task, and creating meaningful user interaction grows out of qualified analysis of users and their interactions. Those of us in Media and Advertising have been exposed to these ideas before, but never before have these been more important to interactive design. Today's consumer has become a partner in the design process, and defines how we approach our interactions with them. Social media tools such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter provide marketers with a limitless cache of information to help segment, target and engage users as never before— which only highlights the need for efficient processing of data.

Our obligation to clients is to find the relevant information, manage and organize it, and disperse it to potential customers. To do this, we interpret client requirements and translate those requirements into a meaningful Interactive Experience. We need to collect and analyze enough user data to create strong, branded messages that reach the intended target. In addition, we must combine data with the tools and applications that make it meaningful to those target consumers.

In this new age of discovery, the true Integrated Interactive Agencies are taking the time and effort to find the tools necessary to do the job, or when needed, create them. With information coming constantly from every direction, those who are efficient at organizing, managing, and presenting it will be successful. Otherwise, we're just spraying a fire hose. If we attempt to do that, consumers will just get out of the way.

Taming the Social Media Beast

Friday, October 2, 2009 by Mike Reese

Despite recent articles claiming the decline of adoption for social networks like Facebook and Twitter, social networking is an ever-growing, ever-expanding beast. Consider for a moment, that MySpace and Facebook really just got the whole thing started. Now there are networks popping up everywhere, corporate networks like Yammer, entrepreneurial networks like ParnterUp and advanced social aggregation tools like the promise of Google Wave.

Slowly but surely, even traditional companies, with traditional practices and traditional mindsets, are realizing the importance of social. Don't believe me? Here's a real world example: 2 months ago I felt like the last person on earth that hadn't engaged in some form of social media. My friends, my wife, my family and my coworkers all had MySpace pages, Facebook pages and Twitter accounts. I was proud, a renegade, a leader, not a follower! Now look at me, as I write this blog, I'm monitoring Yammer communications from Definition 6, Tweets from my favorite people, I've checked my Facebook page twice and I just submitted a request to Google to be a beta tester for Google Wave even though I know I'm too late. Believe me, social media is relevant!

Okay, now what? Well, before you go building out your social media strategy and corporate policy, take some time to understand what impact social is currently having on your online presence and your brand. My suggestion: start simple, work with your website analytics team and develop a baseline. What volume of traffic comes from social networks? What is the bounce rate of those visits? What is the conversion rate of those visits? What is the retained visit conversion rate? (thank you Brandt, awesome article about meaningful conversion metrics!) And, if at all possible, monetize clicks from social. Odds are, there will be some form of expenditure for your social media strategy, baseline these metrics before you begin or you may never know if you're succeeding.

Don't rely on website analytics alone! Imagine this scenario. Scott, Jeremy, Jack and Mitch are looking for the best Vegas dinner destination prior to Frank's bachelor party festivities. Jack gets a promotional email from your restaurant describing the best Saturday night drink deals in town. Scott has been watching Twitter for "Vegas Restaurant" tweets hoping to get an indication of the best spot. Jeremy has been on a dozen restaurant review sites. They all come together in Google Wave to discuss. They invite other friends and family to chime in on their last Vegas experience. They finally decide on your place because of the drink deal (good choice). Mitch calls in the reservation and the Vegas plans are set. In all, across numerous networking sites, there were 21 mentions of your brand, 14 people commented about your restaurant, 13 other people hadn't even heard of your restaurant before conversation "Wave". And a $500 dinner was booked at your restaurant...all without anyone ever going to your website!

Hard to measure the impact of social media if you're just looking at website analytics. You've succeeded at integrated online marketing, but you may never know it. Work with an interactive agency capable of measuring, baselining current social impact (website and elsewhere), as well as the capability to develop a social media strategy that meets your objectives and expected ROI.

Hispanics are Brand Loyal. Are they choosing your brand?

Thursday, August 13, 2009 by Lance King

If I haven't convinced you yet that you should spend some marketing time and money by focusing on the Hispanic population, let me try again. Media Post has several great articles on the subject. Here is another one by Diana A. Terry-Azíos called "Brand Loyal, Yet Unbranded".

As a general rule, Hispanics are more brand loyal than other groups. They are less risky with their purchases and stick to brands that have provided good quality products. However, when many of them move to the U.S., they are likely not going to find their familiar brands here. So they have to start shopping and they have tons of choices to choose from in the U.S.

Another issue is that they are not as compelled to buy "Made in USA" as other U.S. citizens nor will they be compelled to buy products endorsed by people they don't know. If Hispanics don't know who Michael Jordan is, then he isn't going to help Hanes sell more underwear to them. And Brett Favre isn't going to help sell more Wrangler jeans to them.

Here are some key points to marketing to the U.S. Hispanic population.

- You have to prove that your product is of good (or the best) quality. Hispanics will often spend a little more if they are getting the best quality.
- Start a marketing campaign that will speak directly to Hispanics, perhaps with Hispanic stars, but definitely with Spanish content (and not just English content translated directly to Spanish). Your marketing campaign needs to address quality, convenience and emotion. But also keep in mind that the growing young Hispanic consumer considers himself/herself as Latino AND American.
- Use multiple touch points to stay in contact with Hispanic consumers. For example, studies have shown that Hispanics are more likely to respond to text messages than other groups.

For more Key points, see the article I am referencing.

Oh, and by the way, here are some interesting facts about the growing Hispanic population.

45.5 million -- The estimated Hispanic population of the United States as of July 1, 2007, making people of Hispanic origin the nation’s largest ethnic or race minority. Hispanics constituted 15% of the nation’s total population. In addition, there are approximately 3.9 million residents of Puerto Rico.

About 1 of every two people added to the nation’s population between July 1, 2006, and July 1, 2007, was Hispanic. There were 1.4 million Hispanics added to the population during the period.

3.3% increase in the Hispanic population between July 1, 2006, and July 1, 2007, making Hispanics the fastest-growing minority group.

Want more? Here are some interesting facts.

So what are you waiting for? The growing Hispanic population is waiting for you to give them a good reason to buy your products and to tell their friends just how good you are. As word spreads through their community, your profits should start growing at a faster and faster pace.

We can help you. We are an Atlanta interactive advertising agency.

Definition 6 is an interactive media agency that creates marketing initiatives that engage people. We capture and analyze relevant metrics from web analytics, email marketing, online media, and social media campaigns to continue to test and refine marketing plans. We’d like to help you meet the challenge of addressing the new expectations of consumers.

Top 10 Free Sales Force Applications for Your Business

Thursday, August 6, 2009 by Matt Epstein

Recently I visited the doctor for a single respiratory CT scan in which AFTER insurance I ended up paying close to $1,500. Upon seeing the exorbitant bill I headed straight to the nearest Mc Donald in an attempt to convince myself that ordering from the “Dollar Menu” could be a long term strategy to help me subsidize the 10 costly X-Rays (I think it’d have been cheaper for them to simply open my chest and take a look rather than spend 30 seconds photographing my lungs).

During the car ride home, in which I ate all of my fries before reaching the front doorstep, something dawned on me. As I attempted in vain to wipe the french-fry grease from my hands I came to the realization that when you combine something that’s good AND cheap it can make anyone’s day better. Granted my cholesterol/MSG high only lasted for but a moment, I decided in the spirit of giving I’d share the same free and good satisfaction with those of you in the blogosphere.

As every aspect of business slowly moves into the clouds, businesses have been turning to website integration platforms such as SalesForce.com. Many businesses are unaware of the Sales Force app exchange, and those who are often times don’t realize there are a plethora (I’ve been dying to use that word) of extremely useful and FREE applications that help to make Sales Force a complete online marketing and sales tool.

So on behalf of myself and Definition 6, an interactive media agency in Atlanta, I present you with the top 10 FREE Sales Force applications that every business can benefit from. In no particular order;

SalesView:

Of all the free Apps on the exchange list, Sales View may be perhaps the most valuable for your sales team. This App which was built specifically for Sales Force allows your sales team to instantly tap into a plethora (that’s twice now if I use the word one more time I own it) of sales resources such as Hoover's, D&B, Reuters, Jigsaw, NetProspex, LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook to get all they’d ever need to know about a potential client.

2. Contact Capture:

Losing hours of time inputting contacts from e-mails and web-leads? With Contact Capture simply highlight the contacts information in an e-mail or on a website and Contact Capture automatically inputs the necessary contact information in Sales Force.

3. Google Web Analytics:

Currently using google analytics to analyze your website? This free App allows you to track web page visits, browser capability, average visit time, and much more right from your dashboard. This is the perfect tool for any SalesForce user who also does work with their businesses search engine optimization and websight design.

4.Lead Look-A-Like Finder:

I think every sales person and executive has been frustrated at one point or another in their sales force experience by running into the issue of duplicate leads. End the frustration with this nifty App that scans your entire SalesForce database and removes duplicate leads.

5. Skype For Sales Force:

This free Skype application provides seamless Skype integration into Salesforce application.

6. SalesForce for iPhone:

Personally, I’ve never been cool enough to own an I-Phone, but for those of you that are this is a great App that allows you to instantly pull up SalesForce.com and log in to your account on your iPhone. Currently the I-Phone is the only smart phone with free SalesForce access (Blackberry charges). This one will most likely be a big hit in interactive agencies.

7.Form Factory Quotes & Invoices:

A great application software development, I’ll use the Apps own description “FormFactory generates business forms including quotes, proposals, invoices, and packing slips. Documents can be delivered as live web forms, PDF or HTML files, and Microsoft Word. Create professional quality forms for free without leaving salesforce!”

8.Auto Complete Lookup:

Granted this App will not triple your revenue, however it will make it much easier for your employees to instantly find the information they are looking for. This quick script creates a Google-type search interface in which typing a few letters into the search box provides you with options of the closest matches.

9. E-Mail Auto Complete:

This nifty light-weight App provides you with access to all your contacts directly from the Salesforce Email page. Provides you with similar functionality to that of the auto complete search.

10. Mass Transfer Contacts:

If only someone had written this top 10 list before me I would have not had to spend 8 hours moving one of my sales reps contacts to another sales reps contact after the previous one left. This app allows you to instantly shift all contact ownership from one sales person to another, a great tool for anyone using sales force for email marketing.

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.

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.

Value in your social network

Friday, June 5, 2009 by Jeremy Bromwell

I recently read an article in BusinessWeek titled "What's a Friend Worth?" The article gives an interesting perspective about social media strategy and how online media tools can help provide massive insight into consumer and employee behavior.

"What do these relationships say about us and the people in our networks? Companies armed with rich new data and powerful computers are beginning to explore these questions. They're finding that digital friendships speak volumes about us as consumers and workers, and decoding the data can lead to profitable insights. Calculating the value of these relationships has become a defining challenge for businesses and individuals.

Marketers are leading the way. They're finding that if our friends buy something, there's a better-than-average chance we'll buy it, too. It's a simple insight but one that could lead to targeted messaging in an age of growing media clutter.

The second arena for study is inside companies. Businesses such as Hewlett-Packard and IBM (IBM) are researching employees' relationships with an eye to quickening the flow of knowledge and the generation of ideas within their ranks. One team at IBM Research, studying anonymous data of Big Blue's consultants, concluded that employees who forged tighter e-mail connections with their boss brought in on average $588 more in monthly revenue. This is early-stage research, but the goal is to distill patterns of successful communication and replicate valuable links throughout the company.

For most of us, the business value of networked friends is tied to a third area, personal opportunity. In addition to companionship, friends online represent a turbocharged Rolodex for entrepreneurs and job seekers inside and outside companies. These collections of contacts expand social horizons, keeping us in touch with more people who can provide ideas, answers, business leads, and even legal advice. Those who master these connections stand to win a big edge: the connections and brainpower of a large team."

While monetizing social media marketing can, at times, be challenging increased brand awareness and buzz around your product, service, or company can help you reach new consumers with very targeted messaging.

As more and more data is collected and analyzed over time the insights will become more valuable.

Read the full article here.

Learn more about Definition 6's Interactive Marketing Services.

Advertise or Die

Friday, May 29, 2009 by Lynn Moss

Lori Willard, Online Media Specialist here at Def 6, passed along a MediaPost Research Brief that shows that reduced advertising during a recession negatively impacts consumer perception.

According to a new Ad-ology Research study, "Advertising's Impact in a Soft Economy," more than 48% of U.S. adults believe that a lack of advertising by a retail store, bank or auto dealership during a recession indicates the business must be struggling.

Conversly, a vast majority perceives businesses that continue to advertise as being competitive or committed to doing business.

Other key findings include:

• 40% of consumers use coupons more now than a year ago

• Most consumers are as willing or more willing to pay more for ‘healthy' or ‘organic' products than they were a year ago

• A ‘deeply discounted price' was the number one factor that would make consumers more likely to purchase a big-ticket item (+$1,000)

• Store websites ranked second only to search engines as the way consumers research products and shop online

Ad-ology summarizes the research by saying: “It is critical to advertise in the current economic climate, to maintain long-term positive consumer perception of your brand. Advertising not only assures consumers of a business’ reliability in a soft economy, but it can influence where and what they buy, especially when the ads address concerns about value.”

Definition 6 offers strategy consulting services to help you with your advertising initiatives for the following disciplines: email, SEO, SEM, online media, social media, and mobile. Don't let your advertising negatively impact consumer perception.

The Implications of the Social Data Revolution

Tuesday, May 26, 2009 by Lynn Moss

In 2009, more data will be generated by individuals than in the entire previous history of mankind.

Andreas Weigend explains how/why at http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/now-new-next/2009/05/the-social-data-revolution.html. There have been two “data revolutions” in the way consumer data is solicited and collected.

Initially, successful companies gained power by collecting, aggregating, and analyzing the customer data they collected. But, most companies didn’t fully utilize all the data collected.

Then, companies like Amazon.com realized that users often trusted recommendations by other users more than promotional materials. Users started to actively contribute explicit data, such as, information about themselves, their friends, or about the items they purchased. Amazon leveraged this new knowledge to help customers with their purchasing decisions.

Successful firms encourage and reward users who contribute honest data. Netflix allows users to contribute ratings for movies that they have seen; the incentive to contribute accurate data is to get better recommendations for new movies. Customers are starting to interact with each other. Knowing that they are not alone has shifted the balance of power from companies back to consumers.

Why spend time on hold with a customer service representative if we can just Google see if someone else has already solved the same problem? An online user community was likely to be more helpful than a representative employed by the company.

Bottom line: The online world is beginning to be ruled by the expectations of the users. Companies that want to stay relevant have no choice but to accept the ideas of the consumer revolution as swiftly as possible and address the higher expectations for customer relationships.

Definition 6 is an interactive media agency that creates marketing initiatives that engage people. We capture and analyze relevant metrics from web analytics, email marketing, online media, and social media campaigns to continue to test and refine marketing plans. We’d like to help you meet the challenge of addressing the new expectations of consumers.

Twitter isn't the only game in town!

Monday, May 4, 2009 by Michael Kogon

At our Interactive Ad Agency we continually help our clients make good decisions regarding their online media usage. Social Media, eMail Marketing, PPC/Paid Search, Search Engine Optimization, Display, Mobile and Video are just the headers of the variety of options available to us. But recently Twitter has been owning the headlines.

David Martin, vice president, primary research, Nielsen Online, wrote in a blog post: "People are signing up in droves, and Twitter's unique audience is up over 100% in March."

But today I was sent a great article from MediaPost about an online / microblogging / SMS option to reach the masses that might not be the techno elite, but make up the mainstay of consumer America. More spending power and more of the participants in creating UGC for all our social media sites. The company is called Predicto and it is very focused on the celebrity world, think People, US, The View, TMZ, etc. http://www.predicto.com/

Between October and December 2008, Twitter had approximately 812,000 unique SMS users, but Predicto Mobile interacted with more than 2.3 million unique users. "We have a mainstream audience, which can help us grow faster," Kathein said. "Our members aren't necessarily the early adopters. Our customer base isn't made up of heavy iPhone users." The full article can be found at http://bit.ly/M1QQy

I think this a great example of how Interactive Marketing is very niche and how you shouldn't fall in love with one channel, because your users might be better served with another channel.

How can I test the social media waters?

Friday, May 1, 2009 by Chris Thornton

The easy place to start is by analyzing your current position in the social landscape - and chances are, someone's already talking about you online. Take a look at what's being said, and analyze the impact of those conversations.

You also need to understand your motivation for using social media. Rather than taking an ‘everyone is doing it' approach, you'll need to clearly define your goals and outline what you believe social media will help your organization achieve. All social tools are not created equal, and some work better than others depending on the desired outcomes and target audiences. There are numerous inexpensive tools that can help you create a launching pad for a social media presence that will, over time, be effective.

Hispanics beat out the deleveraged consumer

Friday, April 24, 2009 by Lance King

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.

How QSR's and Fast Casuals are Using Social Media

Monday, March 2, 2009 by Michael Kogon

Sales Marketing Specialist, Dana Long, shares an article on how QSR's and fast-casual restaurants have adopted their own social media strategies...

Giving away freebies in today's economic climate resonates well with consumers -- and huge gains are being made within the restuarant industry by brands who are reaching out to consumers through the use of social media marketing.

There is a recent article on Media Post explaining how restaurant brands can benefit from a social media strategy by incorporating freebies, surveys, polling and even a restaurant locator. And with the right tools, franchisees can tap into their online social circles in order to market local events through email marketing and other search engine optimization solutions. Bottom line, online tactics employed at minimal expense lead to massive revenue gains and brand awareness.

Contact online ad agency Definition 6 today to learn how we can help you implement your next social media, SEO or email marketing campaign.

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