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Using Audio In Your Social Media

Tell YOUR VISITORS what YOU want them to hear!
I’m starting to play with a free online voice recording tool called, Cinch. Basically, Cinch that lets you call in from a phone and record a short message. Business owners might find this useful since it could be used to easily record: specials, upcoming promotions and announcements. Once a recording is made, distributing the snippet can be done using the social media features provided in each account; including ways to embed, link and download the recorded message.

Blog Talk Radio & Cinch

Anyone hosting a Blog Talk Radio show will also find the option to downloaded very handy. Once the recording is downloaded it can then be uploaded into a Blog Talk Radio account and used in a variety of ways. Specifically, BTR hosts could use the Cinch recording during their shows, or create a recording that promotes a future show.

The Future Of Cinch

Cinch is new to me, but some of the features might prove to be valuable and a fun way to help get any message out.

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Facebook can use your photos in ads. Specifically, facebook has the default set to use your friends photos in third party advertising -Yikes! To prevent facebook from using your photos follow the instructions below:

1. Log in to facebook
2. On the top right (in the blue bar) roll over “settings”
3. The fly out menu, click “privacy settings”
4. Click, “News Feed And Wall”
5. Click the “Facebook Ads” tab
6. There is a drop down menu next to “Appearance in Facebook Ads” -click “no one”

Please pass this information on.

thanks

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If you don’t tweet, you may want to start. Why? On May 6, 2009  CNET news reported on Twitters efforts to improve their search engine. Specifically the news article reported:

…in a one-on-one discussion, Jayaram [Twitter's new VP of Operations who until recently, was VP of Search Quality for Google] confirmed that Twitter Search, which currently searches only the text of Twitter posts, will soon begin to crawl the links included in tweets and begin to index the content of those pages.

cnet logo

The New Twitter Search

This improvement to Twitter Search will have two effects.

It will keep the existing users tweeting and it will increase the number of new users. The bottom line is, an improved twitter search will make Twitter more valuable at a time when Twitter and Social Networking are seemingly everywhere.

Twitter Search

Tips on Using Twitter

There are a lot of ways to use Twitter. Let us know how you use Twitter. Is it for business or personal? Do you use Twitter for branding? Or, do you tweet your latest blog articles? When you comment on how you use Twitter make sure to include a link to your twitter account and tell us what you think of Twitters new search.

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Social Networking

Social networking is changing the way people work and play online. Social networking sites are nothing new to the internet, in fact you probably heard of Geocities and Usenet, two early social networking websites. But unlike Geocites and Usenet, today’s social networking websites like: mySpace, facebook, digg and the recently popular LinkedIn and Twitter, appeal to a broad range of users that go beyond teenagers.
From the graph below you can see a sharp increase in “social networking” based on search volume.

Social Networking Trend - source, compete.com

What is social networking?

Generally a social networking website is an online community that is based around either professional or personal relationships.

If you visit a social networking website, you will find the majority of sites are created around a niche and membership is usually free. Once you join you will create a profile based on both personal and professional information. When your profile is completed,  you can:

• Join groups.
• Chat.
• Discuss topics in a community forum.
• Post news or articles.
• Search for other members with similar interest.

Why do people use social networking sites?

The appeal of social networking is different for everyone. On a personal level it is a great way to meet interesting people with similar interests. On a professional level, social networking sites have become a great way to:

• Expand a company’s online brand.
• Promote business articles.
• Promote blog posts and blogging.
• Keep current on the latest news.
• Watch the competition …ok “spy” on the competition.
• Meet colleges.
• Find employment.

From the points above, I want to discuss blogging. Blogging is huge online and social networking websites are a great place to promote a blog. But to really understand how big blogging is, I’ve gathered some information starting with the three most popular blogging platforms WordPress, Blogger and Typepad.

popular blogging software: Blogger, WordPress and Typepad

Interesting stats:

• Unique visitors Blogger -#28,147,310 (2/08-2/09)
• Daily estimate search for keyword, “blogger”: #1,716
• Unique visitors WordPress -#22,147,374 (2/08-2/09)
• Daily estimate search for keyword, “wordpress”: #6,466
• Unique visitors Typepad -#9,611,366 (2/08-2/09)
• Daily estimate search for keyword, “typepad”: #11

Note -The Unique Visitors metric only counts a person once no matter how many times they visit a site in a given month. Unique Visitors are typically used to determine how popular a site is. (stats from–compete.com)

Now add those statistics to the an estimated 175,000 new blogs every day; the total as of 8:23 CST on June 27, 2008 is: 209,593,000 (source -Technorati’s count on February 11, 2008 via: youdesignit.blogspot.com)

So with social networking you can promote: a blog, yourself, find contacts, find a job, promote articles and meet interesting people …and more.

Most popular social networking sites

The recent serge in online social networking also has a lot to do with how social networking sites are adding new features and languages. Sites like Facebook have seen a huge increase in popularity as they expanded internationally, while simultaneously improving user control over content.  Recently facebook’s efforts have resulted in huge growth, overtaking mySpace.

Facebook and MySpace unique visitors

Interesting stats:

• Unique visitors Facebook -#73,787,766 (2/08-2/09)
• Daily estimate search for keyword, “facebook”: #355,929
• Unique visitors mySpace -#53,066,785 (2/08-2/09)
• Daily estimate search for keyword, “myspace”: #366,765

To help demonstrate how big facebook and mySpace have become, here is a graph the compares the unique visitors of mySpace, facebook and Google.

Unique Visitors For Google, Facebook and mySpace

Interesting Stats:

• Google unique visitors: 130,285,302 (2/08-2/09)
• overall daily search estimate for keyword, “google”: 445,684

Two more popular social networking sites used to promote articles, blogs and news are Digg and Stumbleupon. I’ve also added a niche site that focuses on developing business contacts, the social website is called LinkedIn:

Unique visitors to Digg, Stumbleupon, LinkedIn

Interesting Stats:

• Digg unique visitors (2/08-2/09): #33,433,760
• LinkedIn unique visitors (2/08-2/09): #11,228,746
• Stumbleupon unique visitors (2/08-2/09): #4,418,609
• Daily estimate for keyword, “digg”: #1,204
• Daily estimate for keyword, “LinkedIn”: #4,204
• Daily estimate for keyword, “stumbleupon” : #1,074

Flickr, Photobucket and Webshots are three social networking sites related to photo sharing:

Unique visitors for: Flickr, Photobucket, Webshots

Interesting Stats:

• Photobucket unique visitors (2/08-2/09): #24,470,242
• Flickr unique visitors (2/08-2/09): #23,769,885
• Webshots unique visitors (2/08-2/09): #4,565,611
• Daily estimate for keyword, “photobucket”: #27,828
• Daily estimate for keyword, “flickr”: #24,227
• Daily estimate for keyword, “webshots”: #5,392

Two social networking sites for blogging communities are BlogCatalog and MyBlogLog:

Unique visitors for BlogCatalog and MyBlogLog

Interesting Stats:

• blogCatalog unique visitors (2/08-2/09): #1,898,783
• MyBlogLog unique visitors (2/08-2/09): #955,648
• Daily estimate for keyword, “blogCatalog”: #53
• Daily estimate for keyword, “mybloglog”: #49

Finally, “at this time”, the hottest social networking site is called, Twitter.

Social networking site, Twitter

Interesting Stats:

• Twitter unique visitors (2/08-2/09): #7,935,441
• Daily estimate for keyword, “twitter”: #8,074

There are many reasons why someone will use social networking. For business it can mean additional exposure to brand and products. As an individual, a social networking web site may offer an online community with other people who share common interest. Either way, the social networking style website has become very popular with men, woman and childrren …the numbers don’t lie.

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Logo Design and Branding

The internet is a lot of things. It is social networking. Online marketing. Websites. Blogs …and more. But did you know that the internet is a great tool for promoting your brand? I’m not just talking about your logo stuck in the top left corner of your website. No. I’m talking about thousands of people seeing your logo every day! Of course to do this you will need a few things, starting with a logo. Next you will need an avatar and logo icon. And finally you will need a favicon. If you are not familiar with an avatar, logo icon or favicon don’t worry, I will show you what they are …just keep reading. As for a logo, I am going to show you why investing in a custom logo is worth every cent. I’m not going to talk about colors, text or symbolism of using blue vs red. For a business person you need to know how and why a professionally designed logo is better than a free logo. So, today I’m going to show you five ways to market your brand online and how a custom logo will increase online branding options in ways a free logo does not. Speaking to the business person, this means more profits. So lets get started.

With the help of a logo the internet can become a conduit for boosting a brand. This is especially true when a logo is incorporated in an avatar, logo icon or favitar. What all this amounts to is more real estate in more places.

To begin taking complete advantage of the internet and online marketing,  your internet branding campaign will require three tools:

1. A LOGO- a logo is the first tool a business needs in order to take advantage of online branding opportunities. With the aid of screen shots I will demonstrate that online marketing can boost your brand to incredible heights. Furthermore, you will see why a logo requires a professional graphic designer whom understands the internet and how a logo design can be applied to an avatar, logo icon and favicon; something a free logo design software does not provide …and this is a huge disadvantage when using free logo software.
2. LOGO ICON and AVATAR – Compared to a logo, the logo icon and avatar are usually smaller. As a professional graphic designer when I design an avatar or icon logo I focus on a small part of the logo that carries over some specific and recognizable element in a usually small area.
3. FAVICON – Simply put a favicon is an avatar for your browser. It is usually very small so it needs to be designed with one recognizable element from your logo.

With this simple explanation of how an avatar, logo icon and favicon are based off a logo, lets go over how they are used in an online marketing campaign, social networking, blog or website.

First, lets start with the website with the logo in the top left corner. This is a common place for a logo since it is one of the first areas the eye will go.

Next, the favicon is displayed in the visitors browser next to the domain name in the address bar. It is also displayed if the website is bookmarked, so when the user opens their favorites, your logo is there too.

Put the website and favicon together and you get some impressive online branding. Imagine your visitor or customer seeing your logo as displayed below!

Using social networking to increase your brand exposure can be done using an avatar. One such method is using Twitter to splash your logo/avatar across the twitter network. Here is a snap shot of my tweetDeck, only imagine your logo being displayed everyday in front of your followers …WOW!

Using Twitter For Online Branding

Perhaps now you are beginning to see the value of having a professional graphic designer create your logo? Specifically, a professional can design with all these elements in mind. This can leave a lasting impression and one that should not be left up to some free logo design software.

If you are still not impressed, let me show you more. Online branding goes beyond Twitter. Another method is one that has been around the internet for years, that’s right …the forum.

A forum is another online branding opportunity to display your logo

Forums also have profile areas where your logo design can be viewed.

Forums also have profile areas to display your avitar or logo

Estetica Design Forum is a great community with discussions around graphic design and website design, but if a forum is not for you, than try to use one of the newer social networking communities. For example, one of the more popular professional social networking groups is called LinkedIn.

Finally, using FeedBurner to syndicate your blog can also be a way to promote your brand by adding your logo to your blog feed.

Branding

I hope you are starting to see the picture and how a professional graphic designer can take your logo and use it to turn the internet into an online branding machine. For a business, a professionally designed logo is more than colors, pictures and text that goes on a website or business card. Furthermore, I only touched on five ways to market your brand online: website, social networking, forums, favicon and you RSS feed (FeedBurner). I did not even touch on a dozen other online branding resources available to boost your brand online; which for all the bottom liners means, increased profits though branding.

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Knowing your Targeting Definitions Can Improve Your Conversions

• Search engine advertising platform: Programs offered by search engine companies to help you create and manage your search campaigns. Examples include Google Adwords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, and Microsoft adCenter.
• Paid Search: Paid search consists of placing ads for your products or services on search engines results pages and on content sites across the internet.
• Content advertising: As part of your search campaign, your text ads are displayed on a search engine content network (for example, Google AdSense, Yahoo Content Match).
• Display advertising: Advertisements using image or rich media formats (including video), typically placed on an advertising exchange or network. Display ads are often banner ads, but can also be other standard sizes and layouts.
• Rich Media: Advertisements that are not static but provide animation, sound or interactivity. An example of this would be a banner advertisement for a loan in which a customer can type in the amount of loan required, and the cost of the loan is calculated immediately.
• Category Targeting: Category targeting allows you choose the type of websites (autos, travel, etc) on which you want your ads displayed within a content network.
• Behavioral Targeting: Targeting method through which your ad is targeted to individuals whose interests and intentions are revealed by website tracking data (i.e., their click stream data). Behavioral targeting does not include the use of adware installed on individual computers.
• Affinity Targeting: Targeting method through which your reach customers on their favorite websites (usually related to hobbies and interests) that they heavily visit and interact with.
• Contextual Targeting: Targeting method through which your ad is displayed when it corresponds to the content of a web page.
• Demographic Targeting: Targeting method through which your ad to a particular age group, gender, or other demographic characteristic.
• Dayparting or Date/Time targeting: Targeting method through which your ad is displayed during certain parts of the day or week.
• Geo-targeting: Targeting method through which you direct your ad to specific geographical areas.
• Placement Targeting: Targeting method through which you choose specific websites or pages within websites where your ad will be displayed.
• CPM (Cost Per Impression): Cost per thousand impressions. The M in the acronym is the Roman numeral for one thousand.
• CPV (Cost Per Visitor) or (Cost per View): Cost per targeted visitor to the advertisers website.
• CPC (Cost Per Click): Advertisers pay every time a user clicks on their listing and is redirected to their website.
• CPA (Cost Per Action) or (Cost Per Acquisition): Advertiser pays only for the amount of users who complete a transaction, such as a purchase or sign-up.
• Cost per conversion: The cost of acquiring a customer, typically calculated by dividing the total cost of an ad campaign by the number of conversions. The definition of “Conversion” varies depending on the situation. It is sometimes considered to be a lead, a sale, or a purchase.
• CPE (Cost Per Engagement): A form of Cost Per Action pricing in which advertisers pay only when a user engages with their specific ad unit. Engagement is defined as a user interacting with an ad in any number of ways.

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As 2009 approaches search engine optimization strategies have increasingly incorporated social networks and media. The new (and improved) tread in SEO is about, “creating personal relationships with others”. The old fashion word of mouth, grass-roots doing business with friends mentality is back, and better than ever.

In the past, SEO stressed code, site structure and links. However today, SEO is changing. Optimizing is not only about good HTML, site structure, and links, but SEO now includes online social networks and the opportunities they provide. It is not about asking for business or clicking on Adsense links, it is about community and helping others first.

Networking is nothing new, only the medium has changed. For years businesses have joined clubs and organizations where they network and meet others in the community with similar interest. Today, the internet has it’s own set of clubs and organization that provide similar relationships, only online. There are a number of sites that exist: Blogcatalog, Digg, StumbleUpon, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn and FriendFeed …etc, each of these provide interesting tools that when used together create both personal and professional benefits that translate into friendships and traffic to your website or blog.

Excluding the trend setters, I don’t think there are not a lot of companies doing this right now. That is why, getting creative and incorporating social media and networking into search engine optimization (seo) is so important.

The important thing is to be in front of the trend. The popularity of social media is already evident, but incorporating sites like Twitter, Blogcatalog or FriendFeed into your professional campaign is not as common. In this regard, you don’t want to chase social media after it takes off. If you are playing catch up you will only be wishing you had pushed the limits. Don’t wait for the masses, keep learning and testing what works, and what doesn’t work.

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I listened to Erica O Grady’s web cast and here is my summery.

If you visit twitter.com in the middle of the home page you will see the following statement:

Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?

So how can Twitter be used to create loyalty and build your brand? The answer is simple, use Twitter to develop friends first and business later. This means putting yourself out there on a “transparent level” so people following you will get to know and understand “who you are” on a personal level.

Talk about what you are doing and stay in touch with clients after the job is completed. Soon clients will get to know you even better. And, if you keep the client in mind, you might even be able to refer a friend to a client (live to give).

Finally, if you like to meet people and you enjoy helping others before yourself, Twitter can be very rewarding both personally and professionally. In a recent webcast, ericaogrady (a seasoned twitterer) recommended trying it for 30 days and twitter about 10 times a day. So give it a try and see what happens. Happy Twittering.

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I belong to a few business groups so educating people on graphic design, website design and search engine optimization is something I do quite regularly. Since I’ve been attending and presenting to various business groups for quite a few years, I like to think I have become good at breaking down the service(s) to the “lowest common denominator”. Well I learned the other day how I really lost an audience member

Without going into the details a business owner emailed me the next day for further information about search engine optimization. This was the question:

I’ve never used a search engine before but was interested this morning after you discussed it at our meeting. I’m wanting to talk further and have you explain it and think about cost vs. return.

Obviously I took the term “search engine” for granted. I know I USUALLY qualify the term “search engines” by saying something like, “…I optimize for the major search engines like Google, Yahoo! and MSN …”. But, I guess I was feeling a little lazy the other day and I decided not to define the term.

Getting to the point of my post- No matter what industry you are in, I hope my experience here is a gentle reminder for everyone.

Break your services down to the “lowest common denominator” and break down all your services and terms so nothing gets lost in translation.