SiteProNews |
- Small Business Video Marketing For 2010
- Computer Support Tips For Silver Surfers
- User-Centered Design for Homepages
- Building Brand Identity – Five Reasons Your Blog Needs a Ghostwriter
- Social Networking and the Overshare Generation
| Small Business Video Marketing For 2010 Posted: 25 Aug 2010 07:45 AM PDT 
In 2010 it seems that businesses have either grown comfortable, or have been forced to accept sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Foursquare.. For instance, there are many impressive CEOs using Twitter to reach out to consumers by creating a personalized touch to their business. Tweeting CEOs like Tony Hsieh of Zappos and Guy Kawasaki of Alltop are well-known for their successful social presences and large followings as a result. There is more to the buzz than just Twitter and Facebook, and you can see this in action by watching how business owners are using video marketing. If we take a look around the internet we can see how these CEOs and owners are taking advantage of web video to engage and educate consumers. Once again, we found that the number of executives active in the web video space, as in the social media space, is quite small. For the small number of businesses taking a lead role in video marketing, their success is easily noticeable. This is a collection of 9 CEOs and founders using video marketing to boost their companies. 1. Tom Dickson, Founder & CEO, BlendTec Tom Dickson, Founder and CEO of BlendTec, a commercial and residential appliance production company specializing in blenders, is the host of popular the YouTube series Will It Blend? In the series, Dickson tests his blenders on everyday items to see if they will blend. Some recent items put to the blending test included the iPhone 4, a vuvuzela, and an iPad. Dickson’s YouTube series is a huge accomplishment. With just over 100 videos submitted, total video views currently total practically 131 million. We would be amazed if that level of visibility wasn’t impacting the bottom line. 2. Gary Vaynerchuk, Founder, Winelibrary TV Gary Vaynerchuk is the founder and host of Winelibrary TV, where he video blogs about wine reviews, updates and news to interested viewers. Vaynerchuk utilizes Viddler to post his daily video posts, and he also maintains an effective personal account on Viddler, where he uploads videos on social media, technology, and branding, among a assortment of other topics. Business owners with large personalities should pay attention Vaynerchuk’s openness to be straightforward. He’s a straight shooter with an honest mouth. This is why his fan base always comes back for more. 3. Mitchell Harper, Co-Founder & Co-CEO, BigCommerce BigCommerce is an e-commerce platform that helps businesses launch professional online stores. Mitchell Harper, co-founder and co-CEO of BigCommerce, posts videos to BigCommerce’s YouTube channel at least once a week, making it a point to speak on topics of interest to his core audience, e-commerce gurus. His videos take an educational point of view while maintaining a down-to-earth, yet professional tone. He says: “I think it’s important to use a whiteboard to explain concepts, and it’s kind of become my trademark in the videos. I could use a proper studio but I want the videos coming off as genuine and not professionally made. Even when I make a mistake, I don’t edit it out, because I feel it takes away from the authenticity of the message.” Harper appears to be adding value to his business and web community. Ever since starting the channel about six months ago, they have garnered nearly 420,000 video views. 4. Tim O’Reilly, CEO, O’Reilly Media O’Reilly Media, a media company that publishes books, magazines, websites, and produces conferences on technology topics. With 1,000 videos and 2.5 million video views, the O’Reilly Media YouTube channel is a well-updated source for the organization. The channel frequently incorporates messages by and interviews with O’Reilly. We applaud O’Reilly Media for repurposing useful content that would have otherwise been lost in time. 5. Kevin Rose, Founder & CEO, Digg Kevin Rose, founder and newly appointed CEO of Digg (Digg), a social news website, co-hosts a weekly video podcast named Diggnation, together with Actor Alex Albrecht, where by they talk about the best stories from Digg. Diggnation currently has over 3.3 million video views, proving that advertising your small business can be as simple as putting together a video series where you discuss the latest news from within your community. Rose keeps his YouTube and Vimeo sites up-to-date as well with information that explores technology, travel, food, and hosts The Random Show with Tim Ferriss, creator of The 4-Hour Work Week. 6. Aaron Patzer, Founder & CEO, Mint.com Aaron Patzer is the founder and CEO of Mint.com, and at present the vice president & general manager of Intuit’s Personal Finance Group, since Mint.com was recently acquired by Intuit (makers of the popular personal finance apps Quicken and TurboTax). One of the best contributions that a company can make to an online community is educating its users on how to use its products. That doesn’t mean you have to create hundreds of videos, keep it simple and to the point while providing value. Mint.com’s YouTube channel delivers powerful information on how to use the products and services that Mint provides. With just over 20 videos uploaded, many of which Patzer appears in, Mint.com has garnered nearly 700,000 video views. Kudos to the Mint.com team for attempting to keep it minimalist while still increasing video views. Their videos are a prime example of how quality means more than quantity. 7. Pam Liebman, CEO, Corcoran Group Real estate pros are jumping on the social media bandwagon, and Corcoran Group, the biggest residential real estate firm in New York City, is ahead of the competition. Corcoran has an extensive social media presence, and their video presence covers to YouTube, Vimeo and blip.tv. The videos highlight CEO Pam Liebman answering issues posted by Facebook and Twitter followers concerning the state of the housing market and New York living suggestions. For example, in the video above, Liebman answers a question posted by Inman News’ Rob Hahn via Twitter. These types of videos allow the Corcoran team to truly engage with potential customers, as well as showcase their expertise in New York City real estate. 8. Rob Banks (Co-Founder), BuildDirect Rob Banks, Co-Founder of BuildDirect, a manufacturer and wholesaler of flooring and building materials, takes a pro-active role in marketing the company. He is in hundreds of videos on BuildDirect’s YouTube channel, speaking about a variety of flooring and building materials. The videos often also feature Jeff Booth, President and CEO of BuildDirect. BuildDirect’s mission for the YouTube channel is clearly stated: “We want to educate, to entertain, and to let you know who we are as a group of people.” The occasional Pancake Day video certainly gives us a glance into their lively company culture. Charleston video marketing is changing and The Graham Marketing Group is providing the most effective advertising strategies for businesses all over South Carolina. Contact us today for a complete online 2 offline marketing strategy. Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources      |
| Computer Support Tips For Silver Surfers Posted: 25 Aug 2010 07:29 AM PDT 
Like a lot of other things on the Internet, computers have come a long way and the need for computer support services that deal with hardware issues is not as in demand as it once was. Today’s issues tend to be more software centric rather than hardware although it’s good to have an expert on your side that can deal with all the issues that you might face. Whilst youngsters who have been bought up with computers generally have a very firm foundation of knowledge about operating systems and other computer programs the older generations (or silver surfers as they are affectionately known) often just want to switch on their Pc and do what they need to do, so if they hit a snag it can prove difficult for them. Computer companies are not all about hardware repairs and some even specialize in computer help and computer skills for silver surfers so if this is you you’ll want to make sure that the local expert you look to has several core service offering including: => Great customer service. Gone are the days when just having a telephone number was enough? In today’s world you need to be sure that you’ve got several different ways that you can contact the computer support people that you need to. Its’ important that you have the opportunity to either call or email them either on a land-line or a mobile phone. => Computer help and advice services. Does your computer repair specialist offer software help, guidance and advice or can they offer basic computer training as a regular service offering. Sometimes all that you may need is friendly help and guidance or a little low level hands on training to solve your issue. => Security Services. Many of the best computer support companies will be able to help you with a variety of security features as well that will either keep you system from getting infected or help you to get rid of the offending malware after the incident. Virus and malware are very common causes of computer problems. => Network Configuration. Home networks offer many benefits and although sometimes a self install goes smoothly, when it doesn’t unless you know what you are doing you could spend days trying to work through it which can be very frustrating. Finding the right computer support company is a lot less complicated than you might have imagined at first, but as long as your PC is still connected the internet is a good way to find local suppliers. That said although this is still a new way of doing business to many people some of the age old rules still apply. Whilst flashy websites may look appealing they are not everything and, reputation is still a big part of any company offering computer services. You can check on this aspect by reading customer testimonials on the site of the company you are considering. When you find favorable reviews, you can rest assured you’ve found a company that suits both your budget and needs. With that out of the way, you’ll be able to rest easy knowing that help is usually only a phone call away. By Dave Talbot: Computer technology is constantly moving forward so keeping up can prove challenging for the silver surfer generation without computer help and support. For local computer help in Berkshire visit >> www.computer-help-4u.co.uk. Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources    |
| User-Centered Design for Homepages Posted: 25 Aug 2010 07:16 AM PDT 
Your website homepage can be the determining factor in the reader’s choice to delve further into your site or bounce off after a cursory glance, to go back to the search engine and look for something more relevant. Despite this, many websites miss this great opportunity to lure in its readers, simply by having poorly targeted or poorly displayed homepage content that does not immediately inform them what the site is about. You have just 4 brief seconds to convey to a potential customer what your site has to offer. Each moment wasted where visitors try to decipher your website, is a moment lost to create the right impression. To create effective, compelling homepage content, here are some easy to follow guidelines: 1. Your homepage serves as the introduction to your company. You should be seeing to welcome your visitors – throwing out the red carpet for them. On entering your site, the reader should be able to know immediately what you and your website offers, without having to click around or scroll. In your introduction, or your website header area, do not assume that the reader has previous knowledge or understanding of your site’s products or services. It’s a good idea to add a breakdown of how it works if you’re offering something innovative, and new to the market to help customers understand your online offering. If you want to, it’s a good idea to add in a link or two about your company. (But be careful not to make your homepage all about your business! Customers find that really dull!). 2. Your homepage should contain contemporary content. Fresh homepage content, if suitable, appeals to the reader as it shows that your sit e is current and up to date. Change the content as needed by displaying popular or hot features that are relevant while keeping the design consistent. Doing this will attract more readers but does not alienate your regular audience. If your homepage looks dated, customers will question the validity and credibility of that information – worse still, if it looks really old they might think you’ve gone out of business! 3. Your homepage should have a set of unique selling points (USPs). Your USPs must explain the benefits of your site to prospective clients or customers and should be in a prominent position on your homepage. They also tell your reader why your site is better than others similar to it and what you can offer them that others can’t. Summary Remember, you only have a few seconds to encourage your website visitors to find out more about you. The customers whole browsing session at your site is determined by how they rate the experience of visiting your homepage and learning more about your business (or not!). Before you invest in any offline or online advertising campaigns, like pay-per-click (PPC), make sure your prospects are going to understand, and value, the place you’re directing them to – otherwise you’ll be wasting money. For more advice on having a clear, effective website homepage, check out the Website Success System which is a jargon-free practical usability course for business owners with over 500 tips explaining how to have a good website with an enjoyable user-experience for customers. Customer-friendly website have been proven to make more money online for their owners. www.websitesuccesssystem.com Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources    |
| Building Brand Identity – Five Reasons Your Blog Needs a Ghostwriter Posted: 25 Aug 2010 06:52 AM PDT 
Your blog might just benefit from hiring a ghostwriter for the same reasons. Every blog needs a writer to direct it, and blogs do best when guided by one or two voices in a consistent direction. Sometimes, however, the originator of a business or idea isn’t the one who can best capture that direction, and that’s when you should turn to a ghostwriter. In no particular order, here are five reasons that many blogs choose to hire a ghostwriter for their content. Reason #1 – They Can’t Write Appropriately This isn’t referring to whether their content is polite or not, it simply refers to whether the “idea man” behind a project can generate content that fits the aim of the blog. Suppose, for example, you have someone who knows all about the world of competitive cooking as seen in Iron Chef. He knows the competitors’ ranks and accomplishments and wants to use the blog to promote interest in competitive cooking – even, perhaps, in his own cooking school. The problem is, he can’t write in a way that catches the eye. His writing might be too technical, or rely on obscure factoids that don’t really do much to inspire the reader’s imagination. A ghostwriter, on the other hand, is all about the writing, and one of the best talents a writer can have is the ability to take someone else’s ideas and rephrase them in exciting, evocative language. Reason #2 – Lack of Time Many of the big blogs seen on the web weren’t start-up ventures, but rather grew out of a company that already existed. Many companies have seen the success of blogs in other ventures, and have chosen to add one to their own site, much the same way they chose to add a website to their business when the web first got popular. This is a natural evolution and response to a changing market, and is not a bad idea. On the other hand, the owner is usually concerned with other issues and does not have time to devote to writing a blog. In such cases, the natural step is to hire a ghostwriter. You want the articles to continue to go out in your company’s name, since the idea of the blog is to promote the company, but don’t have time to do it yourself because you are justifiably busy. A ghostwriter can build a solid blog post in about an hour of work, and then move on to their other projects. Reason #3 – Intermediate Perspective There is a great deal to be said for being familiar with your product and your brand. You get to know subtleties and rhythms of the business that no outsider could appreciate. The problem is, your perspective is entirely different from that of your customers. They can’t get into the nitty gritty of your brand in a way you can. In cases like these, the value of a ghostwriter lies in linking the outside views of your audience with the inside views of the company. You can communicate your passions directly to this writer, who can marry them to a perspective of those on the other side of the glass. Their intermediate presence crucially bridges the gap between brand and audience. Reason #4 – Brand Protection Writers are a notoriously prideful lot. Some of the fiercest legal battles are over intellectual property rights, and justly so. Creating a written body of work is a tremendous effort, and having it stolen or infringed upon is a terrible offense. On the other hand, a branded blog is not about the individual writer, it’s about the brand and what the brand represents. By definition, a ghostwriter doesn’t take credit for their work. The work is put out in the name of the brand, or the site’s owner, as a means of projecting the brand forward. The ghostwriter is willing to take their pay without putting their own creative name on the work, which will benefit your brand because there isn’t an intermediate step. If you let one ghostwriter go, either because they move on to new things or you decide you need a new creative direction, there isn’t necessarily an indication of this to the outside world, and the brand’s voice continues. Reason #5 – Flexibility and Freshness Ghostwriters in the plural sense can do a blog good, too. If you maintain more than one at a time, you can ease the wear and tear that is associated with writing on the same general subject. Writers are like horses; you don’t want to ride them to death on the way there if you expect to get home. And since writing can be done anywhere, by anyone, anytime, you can cast your net far and wide in search of the two or three writers you need to best communicate your message. Enzo F. Cesario is an online branding specialist and co-founder of Brandsplat, a digital content agency. Brandsplat creates blogs, articles, videos and social media in the “voice” of our client’s brand. It makes sites more findable and brands more recognizable. For the free Brandcasting Report go to www.BrandSplat.com or visit our blog at www.iBrandCasting.com Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources    |
| Social Networking and the Overshare Generation Posted: 24 Aug 2010 10:00 PM PDT 
The Rise of Oversharing Back in the late 1990’s, many people didn’t even use their real names on the Internet. Email addresses were usually aliases or nicknames in an attempt to retain as much privacy as possible. But with the rise in popularity of social media services such as Twitter, Facebook and MySpace has come a rise in online confidence. The new Internet generation doesn’t seem to have the privacy hang ups or suspicions their parents had about sharing information with strangers over the net. In fact, this younger generation of cyber savvy has an alarmingly high comfort level when it comes to communicating personal information about their lives on the Web. The premise is that everyone in your social circle not only wants to know but NEEDS to know when you are buying that tall frappuccino from @starbucks. That they need to know precisely where you are and what you are doing every minute of the day. This new phenomenon is called oversharing and it has privacy experts worried. “People put data up on the web and they just don’t realize the implications of this data” says Martin Cocker, Executive Director of NetSafe, a non-profit organization that promotes safe and responsible use of Cyberspace. Location Based Oversharing It’s not just our increasingly high comfort level with a lack of online privacy, but the way people are sharing and socializing online that has changed dramatically, particularly in the past 12 months. Services likeGowalla and FourSquare focus on location-based social networking. Using your phone or mobile Internet device, you log into these sites and announce where in the world you are and what you are doing there e.g. “Kalena is at City Fitness Gym taking a Zumba class.” The process is called *checking in.* You can check in from parks, bars, museums, restaurants, libraries or anywhere you care to create a location. The idea is to let your online friends know where you are and you earn points, badges and rewards (both tangible and intangible) based on your activity. Sounds like harmless fun, right? But there’s a seedier side to location-based social networks. Not only does it encourage stalking by your exes, your boss and your mother, but it opens you up to the very real possibility of a criminal attack. How? Gowalla, FourSquare and other location-based social sites post your exact geographical location including the precise GPS co-ordinates of your current location. Some naive users of these social sites actually register their home address as a *place* and then *check in* when they arrive at the location of their homes. If you are particularly obsessive about posting your location status on either of these sites, ANYONE with an Internet connection can track your movements at all times of the day – when you leave home, what time you arrive at work, where you decide to grab lunch, etc. Many people also cross-link their location status updates with their Facebook and Twitter accounts, sharing their whereabouts with an ever-widening public circle. Not only could stalkers have a field day with this information, but it can make it very easy for cyber criminals and hackers to steal your identity. Unfortunately, it’s not just your identity that can be stolen. The Perfect Storm for Crime If you are a regular user of location-based social networking sites, it’s child’s play for criminals to know when you leave your house unattended. Match this with an overshare on Twitter about your recent iPad or flat screen TV purchase and you’ve got the perfect storm for a break and enter. To point out how simple it is for criminals to take advantage of our silly oversharing nature, programming students Frank Groeneveld, Barry Borsboom, Boy van Amstel set up Please Rob Me in February this year. The site consisted of a live stream of tweets from people who were *checking in* at locations other than their Home address on FourSquare and cross-posting the information to Twitter. The site included a location-based filter and would-be burglars were encouraged (tongue-in-cheek) to view *recent empty homes* and *new opportunities.* When asked why they built such a site, Groeneveld, Orsboom and van Amstel responded: “These new technologies make it increasingly easy to share potentially sensitive personal information, like your exact location. The danger is publicly telling people where you are. This is because it leaves one place you’re definitely not…home. So here we are; on one end we’re leaving lights on when we’re going on a holiday, and on the other we’re telling everybody on the internet we’re not home…” Reaction to the site was enormous and angry. Groeneveld, Orsboom and van Amstel discussed the logic behind the site in their recent guest post for the Center for Democracy and Technology: “Our intention is not, and never has been, to have people burgled… The goal of the website is to raise some awareness on this issue and have people think about how they use services like Foursquare, Gowalla, BrightKite, Twitter, Google Buzz etc. Everybody can get this information.” How Easy Is It? David Farrier, a journalist for TV3 in New Zealand decided to find out how vulnerable users of location-based social networks are. He researched profiles on FourSquare and Facebook and found a couple of people in his geographical area of Auckland. They had willingly published their photos and home co-ordinates as public *places* on Foursquare so with the help of his in-car GPS, he went to visit them at their homes, keen to share with them all the information he had learned about them online, like the fact they had been out for dinner 14 times in the past month and enjoyed listening to the band Pet Shop Boys. Naturally they were freaked out and didn’t let him in, but as he pointed out, “It’s a bit weird, I don’t know why they wouldn’t let me in, they had made ALL this information available to complete strangers on the Internet.” Photo Tracking So this is all a bit confronting. But did you know that you may be sharing your location even if you don’t use location-based social sites? Photos you take with smart phones and upload to the web are automatically embedded with GPS tracking data that can easily be deciphered to provide precise location co-ordinates. So that Twitpic Jennifer Lopez brag-tweeted last week of her diamond bling might be admired by a burglar who now has the exact GPS co-ordinates of her house. Or the snapshot I tweeted last week of All Blacks rugby legend Dan Carter working out at my gym can pinpoint his exact whereabouts to anyone with photo decoding software. Anyone coming across the photo on the Web could track Dan’s physical location down and start stalking (sorry Dan). The Disappearance of Online Privacy An organization in the US called the Electronic Frontier Foundation has developed a white paper on the potential dangers of exposing our locational privacy. Authors Andrew Blumberg and Peter Eckersley write: “Over the next decade, systems which create and store digital records of people’s movements through public space will be woven inextricably into the fabric of everyday life… These systems are marvelously innovative and they promise benefits ranging from increased convenience to transformative new kinds of social interaction. Unfortunately, these systems pose a dramatic threat to locational privacy.” To those who pose the argument that law-abiding citizens don’t need privacy, Blumberg and Eckersley offer this: “It’s not just the government, or law enforcement, or criminals or political enemies you might want to be protected from. Your co-workers don’t need to know how late you work or where you shop. Your sister’s ex-boyfriend doesn’t need to know how often she spends the night at her new boyfriend’s apartment.” Is it All Just Scaremongering? Ask one of the cyber savvy crowd if they’re afraid of their loss of privacy on the Internet and they’ll likely send you an eye roll emoticon. Many claim that privacy experts are overreacting and that the media are just scaremongering. They make the point that privacy is breached offline all the time. “New privacy scare! If you know someone’s name you can look up their phone number and home address in the *phone book*”, posts David Olsen, blogger for Dynamic Business Magazine in response to Facebook’s recent privacy issues. The Bottom Line Whether you think it’s harmless or not, the data people are willing to share online is increasing every day. It’s part of the “everyone else is doing it” mentality that’s alive and well on the Internet. Experts are right when they say that users are becoming too blasé about their privacy and safety. The bottom line is that most people don’t keep track of how much data they are sharing. They’re lazy, they’re social, they’re mobile and they tend to ignore the privacy settings of their favorite web applications. “Social networks have increased enormously in size and number. Most of them allow you to relay messages between different sites and it’s easy to lose track of just how much information you might be giving away and how many people have free access to it”, say Groeneveld, Orsboom and van Amstel. “It’s important to be aware of privacy settings, to control the reach your messages have. If you allow your messages to travel between different social networks, this becomes more complicated. Information you trust to your friends might end up somewhere else.” I don’t know about you, but I’ve just deleted my Foursquare account. Article by Kalena Jordan, one of the first search engine optimization experts in Australia, who is well known and respected in the industry, particularly in the U.S. As well as running a daily Search Engine Advice Column, Kalena manages Search Engine College – an online training institution offering instructor-led short courses and downloadable self-study courses in Search Engine Optimization and other Search Engine Marketing subjects. Post from: SiteProNews: Webmaster News & Resources    |
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