Archive for August, 2007
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, August 31st, 2007
In celebration of International Blog Day, I am going to digress from my usual Internet marketing focus to share with you 5 blogs that I enjoy.
1. As an amateur rock hound I love to dig around and find interesting rocks and gems in the BC countryside which I then tumble to polish. The Rocktumbler’s blog has some great tips for troubleshooting the process so that your rocks come out with a brilliant hue.
2. I traveled to Belgrade three years ago and would love to go back soon. The Belgrade blog is a great blog in English about what’s going on in the city – with a humorous slant.
3. Sometimes its good to get inspired and John’s Place blog is great for this with short anecdotes that help you live up to your potential.
4. When I was planning a vacation to Hawaii earlier this year I came upon this Hawaii Vacations blog which regularly makes me yearn to return.
5. For something out of the ordinary check out Oddee.
HAPPY BLOG DAY!
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Written by Mhairi Petrovic, August 30th, 2007
Your corporate blog is up and running. You’re off to the races with lots of witty anecdotes and already traffic to your website has increased. In order to build on this initial success, don’t forget the three C’s of blogging.
Consistency – write consistently. Many bloggers write posts daily. For corporate blogs the recognized minimum is 2 blogs per week so get on with it will you! If you can’t write consistently or if you set up a blog get others involved and you ultimately lose interest then bring it down: there’s nothing more frustrating than finding a blog that hasn’t been updated since 2005 or worse, has three posts and then nothing.
Clarity – it should always be clear to readers what your posts are about. Write short sentences and keep articles brief to maximize effect. Get your message across in the most straight forward way. People don’t have the time to read page upon page of your ruminations.
Collaboration – blogging is all about collaboration so stimulate your audience and encourage them to join in. Ask for questions and opinions in an effort to elicit comments and always remember to follow up with those who comment to encourage them to come back.
Do you have any C’s to add to the list?
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, August 29th, 2007
One of the best parts of what I do is being able to spend guilt free time on-line researching new innovations. Here are a few of the reasons I have found on the web that are making me cheerful:
1. A good place to track employee and consultant hours over the web is: www.clockspot.net.
2. I love the transparency new technology brings – a great example being the Wikipedia scanner that allows users to track who edits Wikipedia updates – often tracking them back to large corporations
3. I haven’t been able to set this up yet but just the idea of being able to use my phone to take photos of business cards, ads and documents and have them scanned to PDF and sent to my email automatically makes be happy. I hope it works! www.scnar.com
4. Book marking technology is becoming more sexy and dynamic. Check out StumbleUpon and Trailfire.
Reasons to be cheerful indeed.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, August 24th, 2007
The coin has dropped and businesses are finally beginning to realise the collaborative power and interactive business development opportunities of new media. Do you need to find a local firm with Web 2.0 expertise? Then the first place you should go is Techcouver. Techcouver is a map of Vancouver based on the local transit system with links showing where in town Web 2.0 organisations reside. Its a great starting point for companies looking for firms with new media expertise.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, August 23rd, 2007
I listened to an interview this morning about the Skype crash last week and how it had affected one local individual. The guy, a consummate Skype user had been dismayed last week when Skype crashed on the very day of his Grandmother’s birthday. He talked about his frustration in trying to get through to her using the Skype VoIP technology (phone over the web in layman’s terms!) and finished by mentioning that it was days after her birthday when he finally managed to reach her. It appeared to me that he was too consumed in new technology to remember the ubiquity of older technology like the land line. Could he not have picked up an actual phone and called Granny? There’s lots of them around.
This got me thinking about how companies should approach new technology adoption. New technology brings with it a whole slew of new, more effective ways of doing things and its vital to make the most of these opportunities but NOT at the complete of sacrifice of traditional methods. A mix of old and new is often best, at least for now as we wait for the rest of the world to catch up.
I would have loved to hear his explanation to Granny!
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, August 22nd, 2007
Last night I attended the first Third Tuesday meeting held in Vancouver. The event was promoted on Facebook and I was excited to get the opportunity to take a look and see what Facebook people really look like in real life! Seriously though, following the success of Third Tuesday events in eastern Canada the organisers decided that it was time to take the event, aimed at bringing together Social Media professionals and communicators with a view to exploring new developments, to Vancouver. The format of future meetings will involve informal presentations and information sessions with industry gurus and other such luminaries followed by the opportunity to network with members for more about future plans check out Tod Maffin’s interview with Joseph Thornley. Last night, being the first get together, there wasn’t a presenter but I did get the chance to have a blether with other people and share some insights into what’s new in the industry. If you want to find out more or register for upcoming Third Tuesday events you can do so: Facebook; Meet Up and Google Groups
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, August 21st, 2007
Our new web site and logo brings the need to use our new brand image across all touch points expecially business cards. In preparing a design template for the new business cards, I thought I’d get creative with my title to see if I could come up with something better – more souped up if you will. I found this great site that automatically suggests daft titles that you can use to create monikers. I am thinking of using “Dynamic Marketing Orchestrator”…. What do you think? Perhaps I should I just stick with Founder, stop farting about and get on with the task at hand!
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, August 20th, 2007
Corporate blogging is a regular topic here with the focus often on the positive promotional benefits a good corporate blog can bring. I was reminded lately of the impact of blogs as a tool to facilitate market research when I read an article in this month’s CPSA’s Contact Magazine called “The Battle Over Blogs” by Ally Motz. A random study conducted by SiriusDecisions of the media mentions of 10 large software companies discovered that consumer product or service experience posts were, for the most part, not positive in nature.
The article looked at this prevalence of negativity in blog postings and pointed out that this feedback provided a valuable opportunity. If companies monitor what’s being said about them they can respond more effectively to negative PR and can improve their offering based on real customer insights.
Monitoring blog comments and posts relating to your product is a must and will help you keep your finger on the pulse of your business. Criticism is never easy to take and a thick skin is an asset. Look on the blogosphere as an opportunity for your company to track user sentiment and by doing so you will uncover a mine of information to improve your product offering, enhance your service standards and promote your offering more effectively. The best part is that all this key data can be unearthed at a much lower cost than via traditional market research studies such as surveys and its all right there today waiting to be tapped.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, August 15th, 2007
Using keywords is a must if you want the right audience to find you on the web. Here are 10 tips to that will make you determine the right keywords:
1. When coming up with keywords, think inside the head of your intended customer. What is she thinking when she starts her search? Put yourself in her shoes and think about the words she would Google.
2. Use concise terms – the simpler the better and use word combinations rather than one word terms to hone in on the right audience.
3. Use a tool like the Overture Keyword Selector to determine how frequently a term is searched for and identify similar terms.
4. Always check your spelling – if it’s wrong then no one will find you!
5. Think of as many combinations of words for applicable terms as possible for every service offering or product you sell – get creative, ask clients and partners for their input.
6. Consider adding geographical keywords that describe your target audience: if you’re going after prospects in Toronto for example, add Toronto to the keywords describing your offerings.
7. Use your keywords frequently, in blog titles, at the start of all web pages and use applicable terms for different pages or services your provide.
8. Make sure applicable keywords are listed in the META tags for each web page – ask your web designer how.
9. Test and try different words and combinations. Don’t be afraid to monitor and change words frequently depending on results.
10. Refine your clicks by using negative keywords (keywords with a minus sign up front) so that search engines will omit your link when the term is searched in combination with your keywords.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, August 14th, 2007
We’ve talked in this blog before about the rise in prominence of social networking and its implications for serving the needs of diverse communities. Well the latest hit social network is aimed at the an even younger audience. The phenomenon sweeping through elementary schools is Club Penguin. It’s a site developed here in BC that kids can go to and create their own penguin avatar and play games (for money), meet and chat with other penguins and generally hang out. If you are a member (costs about $6 a month) you can buy pets (puffles) for your penguin, furniture, accessories even pizza and coffee. It’s becoming so popular (700,000+ registered users adding thousands more everyday) that Disney themselves recently bought the company that created it for between $350 – $700 million depending on the sites growth in the near future. It will be interesting to see how Disney intends to use it’s new acquisition and how long it will be before we see Disney branding in Penguin Cove. For now its definitely more popular for social networking in my household than Second Life (the grown ups say so!).
