The evolution of the Internet brings new ways to reach your target audience, build brand awareness and develop business. Here are some simple ways the you can take advantage of Web 2.0 technology to grow your market on line.
1. Add a blog to your site - you can start blogging today using WordPress or Typepad. Blog to establish your expertise and increase traffic. Be sure to include a comments section for readers to give feedback.
2. Use a photo site like Flickr to show case your talents - especially if your focus is visual arts. Link these back to your web site and include in other forums - the more people who see your work the more interest you will get.
3. Add a Skype link so that people can contact you by phone and over the Internet making it easier for them to do business with you.
4. Use widgets to get your audience interacting. Participation increases return visits and makes your site more sticky. Examples include easy to use poll widgets (PollDaddy) and traffic counters (Alexa).
5. Use video clips to enhance customer service and post them via YouTube to reach more people.
6. Consider Podcasting your expertise but read our New Experiences in Podcasting blog posts first to learn from our mistakes.
7. Use wiki technology like PBWiki to facilitate collaboration both within and out with the organisation.
8. Sign up and start using a professional or social network like LinkedIn or Naymz but choose wisely by considering where your prospects are most likely to hang out on-line.
9. Consider using a book marking site like Ma.gnolia to share your web discoveries and favorites, to further establish your niche and to network with like minded counterparts.
10. Provide links to all of the above on your site to make your company even more accessible in these forums.
Written July 3rd, 2008 | Blogs, Bookmarking, Corporate Blogging, Internet Marketing Strategy, Social Media, Social Networking | No Comments »
To celebrate Canada day, here are some of my favorite Canadian social media, marketing and technology related sites and blogs:
Techvibes
Twist Image
My Name is Kate
Get Elastic
One Degree
Canadian Marketing Blog
CBC Technology
Miss604
Written July 1st, 2008 | Blogs, Marketing, Social Media | 2 Comments »
Amid the furore of the CBC loosing the rights to the Hockey Night in Canada theme, its good to see that something is going well for them. I’ve been listening to some of their podcasts for a while now and I highly recommend Search Engine which discusses ways the Internet is changing the world.
Blog Explosion - blasts to numerous blogs at once: a great way to get your blog heard.
I’ve been looking for a contractor for a while now and I think my search is over thanks to MyTradefinder a web 2.0 site that refers and classifies contractors.
I found the last 2 thanks to Fiona at FMWalsh: Salesconx is an online place to buy and sell decision maker introductions. Interesting concept but whether it will be effective remains to be seen. BillingBoss is another online billing system for me to try out in my never ending search for the perfect package.
Written June 30th, 2008 | Marketing, Web 2.0, Whimsy | No Comments »
Written June 27th, 2008 | Micro Blogging | No Comments »
Worried that your good work could be plagiarised or that someone’s going to steal your thunder on the Internet and not reference your writing appropriately? There’s a solution to every problem and this one comes in the form of Creative Commons. An offshoot of a US non profit organisation , Creative Commons was founded in 2003 with the help of the University of Ottawa Law and Technology Program and theCanadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic.
The service allows you to license your work easily and at no cost. With various different license offerings based on how much freedom you want to give people to use your writing and in which forums, Creative Commons steps you through an easy process to find the right license and then you simply download some HTML to your web-site and your covered like so:
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Canada License
People using the works are then morally and legally obliged to use them accordingly (or not at all if you so choose). Whether or not people act appropriately remains to be seen and there’s also the issue of the global reach of the Internet with different laws governing different jurisdictions but if this plagiarism is a concern for you then Creative Commons is definately a step in the right direction to protecting your work.
Written June 24th, 2008 | Blogs, Corporate Blogging | No Comments »
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 June 20th, 2008 | Blogs, Corporate Blogging, Marketing | 1 Comment »
I had the pleasure of speaking last night at the BC Chapter of the Professional Organisers of Canada. The topic was Blogging for Business and it was very well received with lots of questions and interaction - it was a great audience.
Regarding blogging, it became apparent that many people in the POC community run small to medium sized businesses and have little time for anything but their business itself.
Blogging needn’t take much time and if you schedule it into your day and get in the habit then its easy to fit in. A post needn’t be long or detailed, it just had to adds value for your audience.
The benefits of a blog are many: low cost marketing, enhanced branding, establishing expertise, more traffic to your site and so on. It makes the effort worth it.
However, if that isn’t enough to entice you to blog then you should at the very least be using the blogosphere to research. Its free, its readily available and there’s a tonne of stuff being said about your industry right now. Use the blogosphere as a research tool and as a way to learn. The best way to listen to what it being said about your industry, product or company is to use a blog engine like Technorati to search.
For some more useful information for organizers on searching for blogs and on keyword positioning check out Seascape Web Design’s latest blog posting. I am glad I inspired you Katy!
Thanks to all who came out last night.
Written June 18th, 2008 | Blogs, Corporate Blogging, Marketing | 2 Comments »
I don’t know about you but every day my in box was overloaded with unwanted email. You know the stuff I mean: grow your penis, bank detail links, lottery winnings and the list goes on. Here are some of the steps I have taken to reduce the amount of unwanted and unsolicited mail I get.
- Use a firewall and anti virus software
- Set up a Gmail account and use that email when listing you contact details online
- Use Gmail - of all the mail systems I have used Gmail seems to be the best for filtering unwanted crap
- Use Akismet to reduce blog spam - its a great anti spam tool to catch unwanted comments
- Don’t answer or open email from anyone you don’t know
- Never click on links or open attachments in emails from people you don’t know
- Only give your primary email address to trusted contacts
- Complain to the spammer’s email provider (this works for fake bloggers too)
- Change your email address (or at least the one you surf with) regularly
- Don’t forward those emails that say if you forward to ten people in ten minutes something good will happen - it won’t
- Go incognito - enter fake email addresses rather than real ones when filling out online forms.
Written June 17th, 2008 | Email Campaigns, Marketing | No Comments »
Written June 13th, 2008 | Marketing, Whimsy | No Comments »
Those of you just getting to grips with online social networking take note: the trend has gone mobile. There’s a plethora of new mobile social networks out there. Its no longer good enough simply to update your status next time you get around to going on-line: you should be updating it on the go using your cell phone or similar doohicky. Or should you?
Here’s a scenario for you: you’re walking down Robson Street (Princes Street or Yonge for that matter) and your phone rings to say someone in your social network has updated their status or added a photo. Turns out a colleague you’ve been trying to meet is at a cafe round the corner passing some time. Question is do you pretend to bump into them or to you respond via your mobile network in the hope that they will respond?
BrightKite is one such social network that lets you do exactly this. Its in beta right now but you can request an invite and if you blog about it you are likely to get one. Add friends on the network according to where they are or make new friends according to where you are. The system also allows you to upload photos and add comments in a map view from your phone and it piggybacks on the success of Twitter, allowing you to link to the microblog (posting once to both and avoiding texter’s finger).
Its all very cool but is it simply another distraction in an already overwhelming sea of noise. Like many of these innovations it will depend on how you use it.
Sadly, BrightKite (the mobile version) isn’t available in Canada yet (or Scotland for that matter) but I signed up for the on-line version nevertheless in an effort to get an understanding of mobile SN. My first post lamented the lack of Canadian availability and the second post was inadvertent - I tried to get support assistance because I couldn’t include my url in my profile (invalid URL indeed!) but instead my post for support was sent out to all. The response was a warning about “crass commercialization”. Thankfully BrightKite staff quickly flagged the issue and, showing great attention to customer service, apologized for their over zealousness but to be honest I was a bit put off - and my URL question still hasn’t been resolved.
I love the BrightKite concept and I am looking forward to trying out the full blown network on my phone one day (when Canadian service materializes). I hope that by then they have worked out all their processes. In the meantime, if you are just getting used to on-line social networking don’t worry, you have some time before it hits the masses.
Are you on BrightKite or using other location based social networks? Please let us know and share your experiences with us.
Written June 10th, 2008 | Mobile Social Networking, Social Networking, Web 2.0 | No Comments »
