Search Engine Optimization Seo

6 Things: Time's a wastin'

Wednesday, August 18, 2010 by Doug Dimon

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

It's been a little while since my last "6 Things" post. It's not that I haven't had lots of cool stuff ooze through the interweb onto my screen, it's just that I wanted to get my CAT/Clio posts out. And besides, absence makes the heart grow fonder... or is that absinthe?

This list features 6 awesome time-sucking activities I've come across recently. They aren't all new, but if you haven't had the pleasure of using these to fill up your copious free time, then you are in for a treat. Actually, the real question is, "are these a waste of time?" If you are engaged and entertained, is that not a worthwhile activity? Who's to say, but if you get caught at work spending your time on these... you don't know me.

Most of these are tied to brands. Do they do anything for them? Much of marketing is building awareness, so in that sense, many of these are successful (but not all). Will they lead to better business? That's hard to say, but they probably aren't hurting it.

1. Who doesn't want a paper head?
Converse has posted an application on their blog that allows you to make a paper mask of yourself. Here's mine.

It took some time, but it wasn't difficult. You can print on 8 1/2 by 11 paper, but only if you are making a mask for your cat (it's very small). 11x17 will yield a nearly life-size mask (that's what I used). If you have access to a large format printer, a giant paper head would be awesome.

Does it do anything for Converse? Well, they are really a lifestyle brand, so I say yes. Their blog is all about be cool, hip, and funky... and this fits right in.

2. Rube Goldberg meets Jeopardy
To promote their Chrome browser, Google created a hybrid video/trivia game.

It uses a cool YouTube feature that lets you play multiple movies in a sequence and interleaves little trivia games between them. The object is to get through the course as quickly as possible.

It's fun, uses Google services (search and YouTube), and it gets the message out that chrome is fast (over and over, in fact). Will it make you download chrome? It might. They provide a handy download link right on the page.

3. Drink a fake beer, win a real prize.

To promote Strongbow beer, they poured a virtual pint and invited everyone to take a sip.

Every time you refresh your browser, a sip is registered. If you are lucky, your sip will reveal a prize. Better hurry, there are only about 400,000 sips and under 50 prizes left.

Does it make you want to try Strongbow? Not really, although if you are one of the lucky ones, you might win some. And it does raise awareness, but there's not a lot of information (or any, really). In fact, given the tiny "drinkaware.co.uk" link in the bottom left corner, I'm not sure it's even available in the states.

4. Do a little dance.

You, too, can be a video DJ, creating a seizure inducing video montage that you can send to all your friends.

Actually, this is pretty fun. You can choose beats and remix clips, and record your masterpiece for viewing and sharing. In the end, you are probably the only one who will be impressed with your mad cutting skills, but that's enough, isn't it?

This is meant to promote fashion photography and it does a good job at that. I felt compelled to click around just to see what the site was all about.

5. Cast you and your friends in a film trailer.

"Lost in Val Sinestra" is a horror film directed and starring you and your friends. Well, at least that's what the trailer says. If you have a Facebook account, create your own.

This is not the first Facebook connected "film" I've seen, but I think the integration in this one is awesome. The production value is great and they did an impressive job using the photos and names throughout.

It's actually a stunt to promote television services for Swisscom. But the only mention of that is a short cryptic message after the credits. There's no link. I only know about the connection because I read some blogs after mucking about looking for who was responsible. There's not even any mention of this on the Swisscom site. Experience: A+. Marketing: F-.

6. Foul mouthed cartoons are fun.

Sure Pixar is great, but have you thought that if Buzz Lightyear would just drop a few more F-bombs it would be high-larious. Well, now is your chance to script a 3D movie your way.

These are not new, but they are still fun to make and watch. Between the too-cute characters and the almost creepy vocalizations, it's hard not to love them. You can create free movies using a limited character set. "Premium" characters cost money (which I suppose is how they stay in business). But even if you only play around and never actually "publish" a movie, it can be hours of fun.

(warning: Most of these movies are rated M for mature... although clearly the people making them are not.)

How to Leverage Online Video on Your Site

Monday, May 3, 2010 by Stephen Boyd

Over the past two years, and more specifically the last six months, more and more companies are understanding the need to have online video on their website. A good website should be a place where a person can come and get good solid information on a company, product, or service. A great website will tell an engaging story around the brand that will pull the customer in and make him or her want to get more information. Great video content can take your site to the next level.

But what makes great video content?

What is good video? Just like anything else subjective, that depends on the viewer. However, with the constant arrival of high quality production/camera equipment for both professionals and consumers, creating a good quality production video is not nearly as difficult as it used to be. From homemade videos and basic talking head videos to more professional e-commerce pieces and live action mixed with animation, online video has a wide array of uses. Now, more than ever, producers and users of online video really need to focus more on the message itself and make sure that is engaging.

Here are some examples of great video content I've seen used - hopefully this will spawn some ideas for how you can leverage online video on your website:

President Obama - Even using cameras installed on computers will work for the right message, as Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign showed. David Plouffe used a series of videos made in his office to keep Obama’s fans informed of what was going on in the campaign. While being just a very basic, low production video, Plouffe used PPT slides to emphasize certain points and utilized the fact that the information itself was interesting to viewers to make a more engaging video.

TED – A great website with an incredible array of videos of speakers on a variety of subjects, this is a fantastic example of the most basic video production can still be engaging and entertaining as long as the subject matter is worthwhile. Nothing more than a camera following a speaker around on stage (granted, some of the speakers are among the brightest people on Earth).

E-commerce – plenty of companies are trying to use video as part of their e-commerce strategy to get users to buy their products. Zappos has been leading the charge, creating not only their own youtube video but also asking consumers to create their own videos showing their experience with their shoes. Lots of great press and interest in this campaign has made for a very successful period for the company. Diesel has a great video on their site of video utilizing tagging and e-commerce within the video. For companies who feel they can engage customers with their products while being worn/used by others, this is another great example.

Viral videos – Everyone wants to have the next viral video ant there are some great examples of thses – from the homemade laughing baby video that has been viewed 115MM times, to the now famous music video for OK Go on treadmills, there are plenty of ways for companies to engage with consumers.

Many of the top brands have their own YouTube pages to let consumers immerse themselves in the brand experience. As we all know, YouTube is now the second most used search engine in the world behind Google – so use it. Create your own channel – post videos, link them to your Facebook page and tweet about them. See what happens.

Another great way to engage in viral is of course comedy. One of my favorite sites for this is Return of Terry Tate - Terry is a former NFL player who both creates his own viral videos (professionally done) and is also often used as a spokesperson in viral videos for brands. Check out his website - and if you have budget and want to do something hilarious, think about him. I have seen examples of both external and internal company videos featuring Terry.

So, companies hoping to use online video no longer have to worry about huge production budgets for these videos. Of course, the better the video looks, the more likely it is to be shared. But, as I mentioned before, if you can create a great story to tell, you don’t have to spend a million dollars to tell it.

Here are some other great online video sites that you may or may not have heard of:

Funny Or Die - www.funnyordie.com
DailyMotion - www.dailymotion.com
MyDamnChannel - www.mydamnchannel.com
NextNewNetworks - www.nextnewnetworks.com
Heavy - www.heavy.com

These are some of my favorites. Please feel free to share some of your favorite sites with me as well - I'd love to check them out.

Top 10 List of Top 10 Lists

Tuesday, April 20, 2010 by Paul Iannacchino

Who doesn't love a good Top Ten list? The answer is nobody! Why else would Letterman still be doing it after all these years? I decided it was due time I compiled my own. So, here is my Top Ten List of Top Ten Lists:

#10 - Letterman’s Top 10 - the mother of all top 10 lists

#9 - Top 10 Cat Videos - woo hoo (ironically, I'm allergic... but not to video)

#8 - Top 10 Best Tracking Shots Ever - a personal favorite

#7 - Top 10 Inventions That Changed the World - did the bread slicer make the list?

#6 - Top 10 Sports Cliches -

#5 - Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs - yeah, thanks for narrowing it down guys. It does have a Top 10 though.

#4 - Top 10 Burgers in the U.S. - according to Playboy (the obvious source)

#3 - Top 10-est Rap Albums of All Time - according to Steady Bloggin'

#2 - Top 10 Video Share Websites - from Top Ten Reviews

And... drum roll please... my #1 pick for best Top 10 lists is...

#1 - Wayne's World - the duo revised the famous bit a couple of years ago.

My point is not the Top Ten lists, but rather, that these lists (and in some cases the corresponding content) have been around for as long as we can remember. Essentially it’s like a radio DJ of old, someone making choices for you and putting the selected material into neat little buckets to presumably be more easily consumed.

For brands the time has come that we start talking about making a clear distinction when it comes to web video (and content), and all brand messaging online for that matter - the distinction between content vs. intent.

Cats doing wacky stuff is merely content for content sake, there’s no intent to make it spread or sell anything. It’s just…cats? However, what if you do in fact to want to speak to the cat people. What then? How do you ‘meow’ to the feline masses? You want to connect with, collect and ultimately sell to the cat people.

Now we have intent.

This is crucial as the era of services like Peter Gabriel’s TheFilter.com reach the marketplace and begin to filter content for us. Forget search. Imagine all the portals claiming to be the source for the most effective filtering, aggregating only the content that’s right for you.

The media landscape is already fragmented to such a degree it’s difficult for anyone, even the most literate and tech savvy, to follow. Which means now it’s even more important that brands are intentional when creating content to reach their preferred consumer.

Can you just throw a banner ad on some zany video of Al Bundy dancing to the latest Major Lazer jam? Sure, that still works…Google’s banking on it. But you’re not speaking directly to anyone.

Instead, go find people. Your people. Seek them out where they are, and speak to them in their language so you connect in a way that’s engaging, authentic, and real. Intent.

Now take that idea and run with it. That’s what the Internet is for.

(Image Credit: Number 10 by yoppy)

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?

How Does Social Change Your SEO Strategy?

Tuesday, April 13, 2010 by Sherman Distin

Off-the-rack SEO plans from four years ago are still turning up in proposals. You can spot one by seeing how they rely heavily on keyword optimization and site-to-site link building.

While these aren’t tactics that should be thrown away, they pay no attention to the fact that the Web has turned social. SEO is no longer about telling the search algorithms what to think of your site. The search engines are more interested in what everyone else thinks about your site.

Forming strategic link partnerships and making sure you’ve used all the right keywords does one thing – it tells the search engines that you know what you want to be ranked well for. This is an important step but nowadays good SEO doesn’t stop there.

The goal should be to build organic traffic not just SEO traffic. You should be leveraging social media tactics to get more people sharing links to your site. Make sure your site itself is Web 2.0-friendly so you get a viral effect from the increase in traffic.

The more recommendations and mentions your site has online the higher the probability of your site being ranked well for your target keywords. Essentially, if more people are discussing your company as the best place to find product XYZ, then the search engines will rank your company higher for product XYZ. Encouraging and facilitating discussion around your products or services can be as simple as offering the functionality on your site to do so.

Capturing User Reviews on your site creates more content to attract Search Engines but also creates copy that other users may want to share. Let's say one of your customers shares a story of how your product solved their problem or was a best fit for their need in a user review captured on your site.

Other shoppers may want to send this review to other shoppers who have similar needs or problems. The more convenient you make the action of sharing the user review, the more likely it will be shared. This functionality can be done through an AddThis button, a FaceBook Share button or a ReTweet button.

With all of this sharing going on through social buttons or good 'ol fashioned cut & paste, you could run into a problem with people sharing different versions of the same link. This is especially likely when you are using Session IDs or when people are sharing links to search results from your site's search box. The URLs can point back to the same content but how each user arrived at that content could change how the URL looks. How is a Search Engine to know which version of the URL to index and rank? Here come canonical links to the rescue.

Canonical links are not brand new yet they are very under used. Canonical links are inserted as <link> tags in your header tag within your HTML. This is a relatively simple operation when compared to creating 302 redirects and modifying your .htaccess files. If that last sentence gave you a nose bleed then canonical links are definitely a better option for you when it comes to dealing with multiple links pointing to the same content.

Making sure your site is social friendly as well as SEO friendly can multiply your traffic greatly. Socially-friendly sites are a great leap forward but don't forget the basics! Content is still king.

Time Magazine's YouTube 50 (And 10 Things I Noticed)

Monday, April 5, 2010 by Paul Iannacchino

A fact about YouTube: 10,512,000 hours of video have been uploaded in the last year. So what’s the future of online video you ask? Look no further than YouTube for the answer.

I was recently part of a panel discussing online video in all it’s forms: pre-roll, branded, UGC, rich media, spreadable (or viral)…the list goes on an on. One question that I’ve been pondering was the last of the evening at the DFWIMA event. What does the future of online video hold? It was tough to answer, mainly, because I think we’re already there. Wait, what?

Look no further than this guy, doing 32 songs in 8 minutes. A guy with a great little idea and LOTS of talent doing what he does best. Next thing you know, 4 million views and tons of imitators. Personally, I think his next video should up the ante; 64 songs in 4 minutes! But back to the future.

This kid and his guitar captivated myself and 3 other specialists in our respective media fields for 8 whole minutes! Then I passed it on and it became the backbone of this blog. How would a kid and his guitar ever made that happen in the time before YouTube? He wouldn’t.

Need more evidence the future is here? Well, that brings us back to Time Magazine’s list of YouTube’s top 50 videos of all time. You can see work both branded and unbranded that’s spread like wild fire amongst users that have viewed, shared, commented on, rated, blogged, tweeted and eventually actively participated with – which in some cases means imitation, others parody. But they all mean engagement.

Here are the top 10 things I noticed about the top 50 list:

1. Kittens still rule spreadable video

2. Second only to kittens are cute kids...especially when said kids are coming down from heavy sedation

3. Small animals that aren’t kittens still get big laughs, and views.

4. Laughter is the international language, most of these just make us laugh or smile – which undoubtedly makes us want to share.

5. Music is also the international language, (when not speaking laughter) – from the Rick Roll to Evolution of Dance to the Hey Jude Kid (which is a two ‘fer – cute kid and music) music is a common theme.

6. People love subtitles. It’s a simple way for the Average Joe, not video editor Joe, to get in on the fun, assuming he’s got a great idea like Literal Music Videos or the epically popular Hitler series (which if you haven’t seen is not what you think)…both are hilarious.

7. Babies. Man people love babies!

8. Classics stand the test of time. Why? Original ideas are timeless. Lazy Sunday – it put the SNL digital shorts on the map. Chocolate Rain, like a chocolate 20 car pile up – you just can’t overt your eyes, or something that just plain tugs the heartstrings like Randy Pausch. If you’ve never seen it, stop what your doing and grab some Kleenex.

9. From the department of redundancy department - let me say it again - great ideas are timeless. The stuff that people share is probably smart, funny or outrageous in someway, but most importantly elicits an emotional reaction. Whether narrative or not, it's short, to the point and not a huge investment of time for me to enjoy and then share.

10. Finally, who doesn't love these lists! Give me more! I hope some other outlets take the ball and run with it. I'd love to see what VICE (VBS.TV) or The World's Best Ever (theworldsbestever.com) rank the Top 50 You Tube Videos. What does the Mommy Blogger think for that matter - is she a kitten lady? Who knows....we'll have to wait and see. (I'm looking at you Mommy Blogger)

Going Mobile

Thursday, April 1, 2010 by Tom Kirszenstein

During the Vancouver Olympics in February, I conducted an informal experiment to arbitrate which mobile Olympics experience would be superior--the mobile site at www.NBCOlympics.com, or the NBC Olympics iPhone App. Other than the mens and womens medal round hockey games, my entire olympics experience was mobile-- I kept totally up to date using only my iPhone.

As it turned out, both were excellent interactive solutions that delivered different experiences. Each had valuable, engaging content--schedules, scores, and tons of video. However, what really differentiated the App was its Social Media integration. It enabled me to follow athletes on Twitter, post my own comments and ask questions. The iPhone App also let me set my own Favorites for quick access to the things that I was most interested in. With the exponential growth of mobile devices & services, alongside the insidious expansion of LBS apps such as FourSquare and Gowalla, our world is definitely going mobile.

In 1999, I purchased my first Sprint PCS digital handset. I upgraded over the years to various other devices that include a "flip" camera phone, a "candybar" phone with no camera, and a cool texting phone (complete with full QWERTY keyboard), and then finally acquiring my current iPhone 3GS. It didn't take long to find out that there really is an App for just about everything.

Since last year, my daily routine has involved using my phone alarm to wake up, then check the weather App, and read the morning news. While at work, I use mobile Apps from Yammer!, Skype, and various Twitter clients such as Tweetdeck and Echofon. Still a big user of SMS text messaging in conjunction with Web sites and various Apps, I am alerted of changes, posts and retail offers that I don't want to miss.

Arriving in Atlanta from Tampa only six months ago, Google Maps was vital to find my way everywhere. Also found myself embracing several Augmented Reality Apps to find things in my neighborhood--where to eat, buy groceries, and even find my apartment. When at home on weekends-- my Trace Tuner is fired up while practicing my saxophone, as well as my Karajan Music Training App for learning my scales & intervals. Checking sports schedules & scores is easy with various sports Apps, I also conduct my online banking with my phone, follow stocks, use movie Apps for showtimes & trailers, and TV Guide when I watch TV. I use my reward card App for my loyalty cards, use travel Apps like Kayak and Tripit to plan & coordinate my itineraries, music Apps like Zoozbeat to create, share, & discover music, and I also play a few mobile games and check LinkedIn, Facebook and MySpace. PayPal has recently introduced its "Bump to Pay" App that makes it even easier to buy with my phone. In addition to the seemingly infinite array of mobile apps, I find myself navigating away from any Web site that is not optimized for mobile devices.

Mobile technology is responsible for sweeping changes in our economy and our culture--not only expanding what we are able to do, but also how we think and interact with others. Televisions and stereo consoles used to be pieces of furniture in our parent's living room that allowed us to trade our free time for soap commercials. We now interact with our world on many different levels, using many different devices, in many different places. Contemporary marketers are still are offering a trade, but the power has shifted, quite literally, into the hands of their potential customers.

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

Monday, March 22, 2010 by Paul Hernacki

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SXSW Interactive 2010 Wrap-Up: All About the Check-In

Wednesday, March 17, 2010 by Jeremy Porter

I just returned from SXSW Interactive (SXSWi) and was blown away by the scale of the festival. There were more than 15,000 people in attendance, looking to expand their knowledge around the Web, social and mobile (for the most part).

It would be impossible for me to summarize the entire festival for you, so here's the "what was trending" version with what you might have missed in the stream:

#1 Location-Based Services Stole the Show

For the first time in many months, something made more noise than Twitter among the Web crowd, namely Foursquare and Gowalla. While there are a bunch of location-based services (LBS) out there, SXSW Interactive was a showdown between Foursquare and Gowalla.

SXSWi was the perfect venue for LBS to take off, due to its geographic focus, large number of events and high concentration of early-adopters. I saw more people checking in on Foursquare than tweeting. Foursquare hit a new usage record at the show, with more than 347,000 check-ins in a day.

Every inch of Austin was checked-in to on one or both of these services during SXSWi, with attendees trying to take over mayorships on any piece of fictional real estate they could find. There's still some question over business models and monetization, but with usage levels like this, there remains a lot of potential.

Gowalla (a similar service) made a fair impact at the festival, but was overshadowed a bit by Foursquare's daily four square games, custom SXSWi badges, heaps of swag, and its star-studded party with the likes of Ashton Kutcher.

While there was a lot of buzz for Foursquare, you really need massive user adoption to make this stuff work. At a show with 15,000+ people, you're bound to have a friend nearby. To really make LBS stick, locations will have to start offering up incentives to people who check in (the most logical extension to all this stuff).

To quote Gary Vaynerchuk's keynote (see #3): "Why the heck would I check in somewhere? If someone gives you a f**king beer for checking in, you're going to check in."

It's true, once businesses start rewarding customers for their check-ins, services like Foursquare are going to explode in popularity (which is what happended when Twitter followers started to get hookups). I wouldn't be surprised to see Foursquare owned by somebody else by the time SXSW rolls around next year.

#2 Private Parts

The more people share online - such as where they're having lunch or who they're hanging out with at SXSWi - the more privacy becomes an issue.

Danah Boyd, Social Media Researcher at Microsoft Research New England, delivered the opening remarks at SXSWi, quickly launching into a mild attack on Google Buzz and Facebook for their recent, well-reported missteps regarding privacy. "Just because something is publicly accessible, it doesn't mean people want it publicized," said Boyd.

As more and more people take to lifestreaming, there's mounting concerns over the sharing of sensitive information. Boyd says she's never met anyone that really knew what their privacy settings were on any social site they use.

While on one hand brands want to open up the lines of communication with customers, they also need to consider any potential privacy implications.

There's a great write-up on Danah's keynote on Techcrunch here.

#3 Gary Vaynerchuk's Keynote

There had to be more than 1,000 people there to hear Gary Vaynerchuk have a conversation with the crowd. Gary is all about connecting with people on a personal level. He stood at the door and personally thanked everyone for attending the keynote (did I mention there were about 1,000 people in there?).

Gary has a no-BS approach to his presentations that reallly make you just want to watch him again. Bottom line? Most companies don't care and consumers know it. When companies even show they care a little, they get rewarded (Zappos is a perfect example).

For a great summary of the keynote, check out Andrew Mager's post on ZDNet. And in case you're wondering, he's got a mean four square serve too.

For a more coloful view into the keynote, you can watch it here. The quality's a bit shaky, but you can still get the content. Keep in mind, Gary's a brilliant speaker, but he does have a potty mouth (in case you get offended by profanity).

#4 Twitter Launches @anywhere

While Foursquare and Gowalla drove the buzz, Twitter still managed to get its share of the lime light. Unfortunately, a good part of the chatter revolved around how boring the keynote was, causing about half the room to leave before it was over.

Dissappointing keynote asside, the launch of @anywhere was significant. @anywhere is a new framework that enables developers to integrate the Twitter experience into their sites. Early @Anywhere partners include eBay, Amazon, Salesforce.com, Bing, Yahoo! and MSNBC.

For the full scoop on @anywhere, check out the official Twitter blog.

#5 Can You Digg It?

Almost launched in the midst of SXSWi was the announcement that Digg is getting a major overhaul. Digg CEO Jay Adelson made the announcement at the "Bigg Digg Shindigg" (love the name). The overhaul will include personalized feeds and the return of the Digg leaderboard. You can learn more about the new version (and sign up for the beta) at http://new.digg.com.

#6 QR Codes

There were QR codes (Quick Response code technology) on everything at SXSWi, from everyone's name badges to the fleet of Chevys on display. QR codes, a special type of bar code, are becoming more prevalent in advertising and product packaging. They provide an added way for consumers to interact with content, typically through a mobile device.

For example, if you used one of the QR readers (like I-Nigma for the iPhone) to scan an attendees badge at SXSWi, you were able to save the person's information. It was a cool way to exchange information, despite the experience being a bit slow. Look for QR codes to show up more and more (more on the SXSWi QR stuff here).

Checking Out

In conclusion, when all the hype dies down, everyone will remember this year's SXSWi as the kickoff of LBS for the masses. If last year was the year of "What are you doing?", this year will certainly be the year of the "Check-in".

Were you there? What was your favorite part of SXSWi? Let us know.

(Image Credits: Danah Boyd Art by amanichannel)

6 THINGS

Friday, January 22, 2010 by Doug Dimon

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

Me speaking at Augmented Reality Event

I recently participated in a panel discussion on “augmented reality” at the Samsung center in NYC (more on that here). So today’s list begins with several things being done (or dreamed) in A/R.

1. Esquire Augmented Reality Issue
A/R Esquire Cover

One of my fellow panelists was the Art Director from Esquire magazine and he showcased the December A/R issue of Esquire. If you haven’t seen it, check out the demo. And if you can get your hands on a copy of the magazine, try it out yourself. As with most executions of A/R, it’s still got a way to go, but you can see the potential of bringing a new experience and added value to a publication or product.

2. AR Art for the LAYAR
ART LAYAR App

Many of you may be familiar with the LAYAR mobile application for Android and iPhones. It’s an A/R platform that lets developers “easily” create specific A/R executions for mobile devises. It uses the GPS, accelerometer, and camera to place objects and info in the environment around you. One of the those executions is “ART AR” that allows you to experience virtual art that has been placed at a specific location. If you are lucky enough to be near one of these locations, you simple view your surroundings on your phone’s display and voila… art all around you. I think this Mondrian sculpture has been placed at various locations, one of them being around the corner from where I live. Watching this video doesn’t really convey the experience. It’s pretty cool to see a virtual structure all around you. Again, it suffers from current technology limitations, but the possibilities are exciting.

3. “SixthSense”
Experimental A/R interface

Here we get a glimpse into where A/R might lead. Clearly, the goal is to make this as a passive an experience as possible. This research team has assembled some off the shelf hardware and written some new software that allows you to integrate digital information into your everyday experience. It’s rough, and not entirely developed, but even at this stage it is pretty impressive.

4. “Augmented (hyper) Reality”
The future of A/R?

This is a futuristic look at A/R. What will it be like when we really can overlay our world with a virtual world? One of the things all marketers struggle with is how to get branding in front of a consumer in a way that will not make them feel as if they are having something thrust upon them. One of the topics discussed at the panel was that if a consumer feels they are getting value (information, entertainment, etc) then they will accept a certain amount of invasive marketing. Would you be open the kind of branding seen in this video if it allowed the kind of interaction it promises?

5. Banshee Beat
Going for a drive via streetview

Stepping away from A/R, here’s clever music video that was made by using Google Map’s Streetview. It traces the artists drive to work via the freeways of LA. Simple, engaging, fun.

6. Upular
all mixed UP

And finally, here’s a new offering from video remix artist, Pogo. He creates new works of music and video by using sounds and images contained in movies. Unlike many remix artists, he only uses sounds from the film. I found this one to be particularly successful because it can stand on its own as a great song. (As an aside, I first became aware of Pogo when his video was used to demonstrate www.yooouuutuuube.com, a fun use of the Google API that has since been co-opted for on on-air HBO promo campaign… the web leads again.)

Innovation and Cost Drivers

Wednesday, October 14, 2009 by Jasdeep Jaitla

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

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

Create Measurability

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

Measurability and Interactive Marketing

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

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

Internet Application Development

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

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.

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.

Plan now for a successful holiday season at your website

Wednesday, August 5, 2009 by Lynn Moss

MarketingSherpa released its 2009 eCommerce Benchmark Survey and reminds us that we should be gearing up for what is projected to be an improved holiday season: up 9% over 2008. Nearly 1,500 eCommerce marketers rated tactics for improving website conversions.

1.  Perpetual shopping carts

These take many different forms:  from a simple note that there’s a product sitting in the cart to dynamic overlays showing images of the product, price, and estimated shipping costs.  The perpetual shopping cart keeps the purchase in the mind of the customer; that psychological anchor helps guide them back to the purchase.

2. Website search

Consumer research suggests that almost 50% of shoppers prefer internal search over traditional menu options. This number naturally rises when they have a specific product or brand in mind.

The first priority is to test your internal search regularly to ensure that it works effectively. Second, examine the different business factors that can be used to optimize internal search results.  Some marketers use a ‘last in-first out’ method to move inventory, while others use their analytics and database systems to sort products by profit margin. The choices are as broad as your technology and creativity.

3.  Enhanced display

Consumers are enthusiastic about getting multiple, varied photos of a product.   People want to know as much as they can about a product, and even static images can help. Showing videos how to use products or explaining complex features can bring products to life for the user.

Definition 6 is an Atlanta ad agency and has extensive experience in building and designing eCommerce websites.  We can improve your Search Engine Optimization. We are experts in Google Search technology and can implement search at your site. We can also help you with your interactive advertising campaigns and targeted email marketing. Do you need a mobile advertising strategy? We can help!

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.

SEO Friendly Tweets?

Friday, June 26, 2009 by Jeremy Bromwell

Recent rumors suggest that Google is moving towards real-time search which would include indexing Tweets. That means that NOW is the time to look at your Twitter presence.

Google is already indexing tweets just not in real-time, but pages and individual tweets are appearing in search results.

Here's an example:

Here are a few tips to improve search engine optimization with your twitter posts:

Choose a good handle
Select an account name wisely
Make your bio count
Spread the word
Remember your URL
Select the initial characters of each tweet carefully (the first 42 or so become your title tag)
Create keyword-rich tweets when possible
Optimize for RT (aka retweetability)
Shorten those links (and track them)
Cut the fat - take the reader to the information they want, don't make them search for it after clicking your link

At Definition 6 we work with businesses and companies to help develop social media strategy and improve social media marketing for our client. If you are looking for interactive solutions that deliver let us know and we'll be happy to help you take your business to the next level.

Portions of this post have been adapted from an article by Mike Dobbs, read the original post that inspired me here.

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.

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