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What is Web 2.0?

The big trend on the Internet in the last few years is Web 2.0. The first year that I kept hearing the term I was working extensively with Internet marketers who seemed to be seeping onto the Internet from the late night cable infomercials. They all kept saying it was the best thing to happen for solopreneurs and small businesses looking to reach beyond where they were willing to travel. After a few conversations with some of the people who defined what Web 2.0 really is I finally got it.

 

Here is what the essence of Web 2.0 is NOT:

(despite what you may have been told)

 

1. Rounded corners
2. Skype Blue
3. Lots of navigation options
4. A RSS feed button
5. Having a Blog

 

Here is what the essence of Web 2.0 IS:

 

1. Social Networking
   1. MySpace
   2. YouTube
   3. Facebook
   4. Forums
2. Business Networking
   1. Linkedin
   2. Meetup
   3. Industry specific Forums
3. Engaged communication providing value and illustrating expertise.
4. Navigation that makes sense and works well.
5. A commitment to actively participate to expand on the shared knowledge base (string theory).

 

So why should small businesses pay attention to what Web 2.0 brings to the Internet?

 

Web 2.0 allows a business to show off the talent of their employees or owners. Web 2.0 is not something that can be outsourced, the writer must have the knowledge and insight being. I have seen these tasks outsourced before, and every step of outsourcing lost a high degree of the companies brand strength.

 

 

Top 3 New Media Outlets

Keeping up with the latest developments in PPC marketing has led me to be very involved in the Online social media space in general. I have experimented with countless new media marketing techniques and participated in developing everything from article marketing programs to the latest apps like Twitter.

I was listening in on a webinar Jen was participating in and the group consensus on the state of social media was ranking the top three new media applications/websites for B2B marketers.

1. Facebook. The Driving force behind why Facebook is preferred for professional development over similar sites like MySpace is the beginnings of the network as a way for college students to connect and keep in touch. This education level of the base user is distinctly different than the more artist/teen targeted MySpace.

2. Linked-in. Linkedin is designed to be focused around professional contacts with job postings, a Q/A board, and the ability to get a recommendation from a colleague.

3. Twitter. The leading edge of social applications is Twitter. Twitter is a micro-blogging format that limits any post to 140 characters. users are able to follow other users, and the other person can choose whether they want to follow back. In addition users can direct message each other. Twitter posts are indexed by Google. Many corporations such as Comcast are building their outreach on Twitter by having a tech support account that is monitored 24/7. Twitter is like the latest version of a chat-room, but everybody has control over what part of the room they see.

I agree with 2 out of the 3 above for B2B marketing and public relations. Social Networking sites are not a place to market unless you are a solopreneur. Facebook and MySpace are simply not perceived as professional forums, and are often not completely controlled by the user. Control over voice and branding when using new media and social media make using these outlets seem risky for many large organizations, but a well thought out strategy directly related to branding and target audience can make new and social media outlets a source of prospects, clients, and goodwill for any size business.

Blogging and Corporate Culture

Corporate blogging is still fairly rare, with only a few big companies choosing to blog. For many companies blogging seems like something that only upper management should be involved in. Many companies begin this way, opening up the blog to department managers, with the plan to slowly open up the blog to a larger number of employees.

While limiting the blog initially to department managers, those managers soon found that either they weren’t familiar with the technology or they didn’t have the time to write. So they asked their employees to either write the posts, and have them proof them, or they wrote them and asked someone to enter them into the blog.

Employees who normally don’t interact with clients started getting excited, the blog means recognition publicly of their expertise. Soon employees were communicating more across departments talking about what someone posted on the blog.

When a corporate blog is opened up to employees it benefits the business in more ways then just taking the load off of management to produce content. The corporate culture is given a boost.

Semantic Judgement and Keyword Research

Responding to a Tweet from David Bullock made me confident in the way I pursue keyword phrases and write ad copy for my clients.

When it comes to PPC being part of a conversation with your customers David hits the nail right on the head . Its all about history and the conversation the keyword is part of for the user.

Just using the lists that the ad platform spits out at you based on your site and their data does nothing to apply the semantic judgments that are necessary to convert those who view your ad into customers.

There are two parts to this to consider in PPC marketing:

1. Exactly what David  mentions, and the knowledge of the customer to make a good judgment call.

2. The historical data on that keyword phrase and those similar to it.

Exploring the search history of the keyword, as well as the competition for that keyword, can help any size business take their PPC marketing to a higher level.

Be daring, stop tracking CTR and just optimize for Conversion rate. With knowledge of the conversation you are having with your prospects you will quickly notice the improvement in the ROI of your efforts.

Blogging for Business – 10 Laws & 10 Rules to Blog By

By now you would have to really live in a hole not to have heard of “blogs” or “blogging.” Blogging as a traffic generating technique is becoming more common in businesses small and large in America. As small businesses it is of utmost importance that we, as company bloggers, extend your company’s brand authentically and accurately.  Therefore, I have compiled this list of 10 rules to blogging business blogs.
THE LAW

1.    Follow all Guidelines as set forth in the Employee Handbook, or develop best practices.
2.    Conversational tone.  Like you are speaking with a friendly prospect.
3.    At least 200 words, but enough to cover the subject well.
4.    Use the English Language well. Please have someone else proofread all entries before posting.
5.    Bounce Blog Posts off of Coworkers in your department for content coverage.
6.    Do Not!!! use the Blog as office chat room. This is for Public consumption.
7.    Remember, nothing you put out on the internet really ever goes away, there are plenty of sites that let you browse the internet of the past.
8.    Keep it positive, do not write negative opinions, but write positive opinions about the other side of the argument.
9.    Never Plagiarize, Steal Images, or link to competitor’s sites.  Always use content and give credit where it is due. If the source of your blog post’s topic is from a newspaper of website, a link to that site as the source (link the exact page) will help your site increase in page rank.
10.    Be Yourself, but keep personal politics and preferences private. We may all love da Bears, but the prospective client in Indianapolis doesn’t want to hear about it.

THE RULES

1.    Set time aside each week to write that week’s blog posts.
2.    If you write a post that is super long, we can leverage it into installments.
3.    Look to the past to provide pre-written material you already have.
4.    Be prepared ahead of time. Pre-write a month’s worth of Blog posts on general topics that can be posted at any time to fill a gap in writing.
5.    Set time aside each week to write that week’s blog posts.
6.    Think about things outside of branding and advertising as subjects and show how they reinforce our integrated branding approach.
7.    Mixing media enhances the users experience, a blog post is always better with an image.
8.    Comments on other people’s post should only be made if they bring more insight into the topic, and not just a pat on the back. Prospects see right through that.
9.    Don’t over think it. Be yourself. Represent your company accurately and just write.

In an effort to be more myself

I’ve always had the dilemma when writing for the Marketing Curve blog that I can only add content when it’s about 70% or more about marketing.

As such the posts have been few and far between.

So, it has been decided (here in the Marketing Curve Ivory Tower) that a blog is supposed to be more personal than that! In order to extend my brand effectively I need to be myself. The best way to do that is an offsite blog with separate branding.

There will still be oodles on marketing and sales, but now if I want to put a post out there about social media not being very social, or how it’s common for job seekers to suffer from depression I should be able to. It’s not like I’m fighting my brand to tell you what I had for breakfast or what errands I ran that day.

But making this change yesterday yielded three somewhat interesting blog posts, when usually I sit at an empty notepad file thinking about what to write and which blog to write it for almost daily.

It has gone from being difficult to being joyous and exciting - and I think you’ll notice.

So keep up with me, keep up with the blog, and feel free to contact me and make suggestions or let me know about you and what you do and I can talk about it! Two quick and easy ways to remember I’m here and writing for your enjoyment…

• Subscribe to subscribe to the Beyond Mom RSS Feed.
• Or bookmark it if you would like, by going directly to Beyond Mom and adding it to your favorites.

I’m still deciding if I want to go all Feedburner style and offer an RSS to email option. Would you like to receive the blog posts in a daily email rather than subscribe in an RSS reader? Let me know!

w00t the he11?

Mirriam-Webster has chosen their Word of the Year.

The word is w00t.

I’m watching CNN Headline News explain the meaning right now.

John Morse, president of Merriam-Webster, told the Associated Press that the selection of "w00t" "shows a really interesting thing that’s going on in language. It’s a term that’s arrived only because we’re now communicating electronically with each other."

Do you find it a little odd that the dictionary company is choosing an obscure word as the word of the year? I mean, I know what it means and so do most of my friends…but that’s because I’m a computer geek!

Did w00t hit the MySpace kiddie scene and I missed it? They’re already typing LiKe ThIs wITh ThE CaPs (how do they do that with any speed? I type 92wpm and doing the upper/lowercase thing kills my speed.) But if the 106 million and counting people of MySpace embraced w00t while I wasn’t looking that could explain it.

All I know for sure is if I had my say, the word would have been l33t (also spelled 133+)- it’s long overdue.* It’s even mentioned in Merriam-Webster’s article on the 2007 word of the year. The entry can be found HERE.

Do you have a favorite nonsensical word that you think should have made it as the coveted Word of the Year? If so, let me know in the comments section. Please also give me a definition. I don’t want to spend the next year on www.urbandictionary.com trying to find it.

*For those of you that don’t want to go over to the Merriam-Webser site - 133t = leet = elite (more geek talk from back in the day. Maybe I should just get a walker now and start learning how to play shuffleboard. I am gettin OLD!)

Some other words from the top ten that didn’t get chosen:

2. facebook (as a VERB?!)
3. conundrum
4. quixotic
5. blamestorm
6. sardoodledom
7. apathetic
8. Pecksniffian
9. hypocrite
10. charlatan

I’m Merchant Circle Curious…

I’ve been a member of Merchant Circle since early this year.

I am still trying to figure out exactly what the purpose is.

Don’t get me wrong, the listing on their site does show up in the search engine, so it’s not all bad. I’m thinking that this is one of those "all in one" solutions for businesses who don’t want to have a website (or don’t want to be overcharged for a crappy website.) Here are some of the things you can do on the site:

• Enter your business information (which will then show a map when your page is brought up.
• See if your business is listed on Yahoo! Local Search among other online business listing directories.
• Write a blog
• Connect with other local (or non-local) merchants and form a circle of businesses.
• Upload pictures (so people know what your store looks like, or what you look like, or what your featured product looks like, etc.)
• Upload video (because that viral marketing is so hot right now.)
• Review other businesses and email people with your link so they can review your business
• See if your business is in the news, where it shows on the web, etc.
• Submit advertisements or create online coupons for your business that can be seen by other Merchant Circle members or sent via email to your subscribers or contact list.

But here is the one that I think is really powerful:

• Add email addresses of your customers or contacts
• Send a newsletter using a predefined template right from Merchant Circle .
• These are FREE services

I don’t use this for my newsletters, but as free solutions go I think this one is pretty good. I’m not sure how they handle double opt-in for the email addresses to make sure you’re not spamming people (I didn’t see an option for double opt-in)  The template is pretty darn nice and it allows you to upgrade to a paid membership of you do not want advertisements in the header of the newsletter.

For most businesses that are too small or do not want to have a web presence, Merchant Circle seems like an interesting all-in-one solution that only requires as much updating as the business owner wants to have. Unlike a site where constant updates will keep your rank higher.

Is this the right solution for you? Check it out, give it a test drive. It can’t hurt! 

Black Friday Bash and Special Offer

We had a very powerful offer that we presented today at the Black Friday Bash. What we offered was simple, powerful, and really just pretty darn awesome all around.

Either of the following were offered for $20

1. Group Sales Call
   • Great for product OR service businesses!
   • No more than five participants per call - so everyone has a chance to participate actively.
   • Quick worksheet so you’ll be able to start the call with a plan.
   • Safe non-judgmental environment.
   • At least one real sales strategy you can use by the time you’re off of the call.
2. Keyword Research
   • Five top keywords being searched for in your niche.
   • Five long tail keywords you can be found on page one of Google for.

You can use these keywords in your headline and body of an article if you do any article marketing. You can use them in press releases. You can use them on niche websites or in forum posts. You can even use them in your signature line or comments on other people’s blogs.

All Keyword research is done by our Google AdWords Professional.

The part that makes it a TRUE black friday deal is if you want both of the packages…we’re offering that package for only $30! (at least until Monday…then the deal goes away forever…so sad…)

If your business needs a jumpstart (or just some powerful keywords) this is the PERFECT opportunity for you to get it at a super-low price.

If YOU want to get in on this awesome deal, send an email to jennifer@marketingcurve.com letting me know if you want to schedule a group sales call, keyword research, or both and we’ll take it from there.

Have a great weekend!

Jen
p.s. You can forward this to someone you think needs keyword OR sales help and as long as they send me an email by Monday…they’re in!

Internet Millionaire Game Show

I got through the first time with only one wrong answer…how will you score?

Let me know - leave a comment - I look forward to seeing if anyone can do it perfectly the first time through

Internet Millionaire Game Show Link 

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