Out-Smarts Internet Marketing

Every-time I read a newspaper these days there seems to be an article in there about Social Networking. Most of these talk about MySpace or Facebook in the personal context (keeping in touch with family, catching up with old friends etc) but few touch on the business implications of these new media technologies. I was pleased then to read last weeks post by One Degree - Move Over, Corporate Blogs – Make Way for Corporate Social Networks. The article discusses the collaborative aspects of these technologies and their business potential giving a great example from Specialised whose MySpace/Facebookesque page allows bikers to share stories/photos etc whilst further entrenching Specialised customer loyalty.

Social networking applications not only provide the opportunity for businesses to build loyalty, they also offer a great forum to attract new customers as witnessed in my recent lunch at Inifinity Dining here in Vancouver. I went to Infinity because the owner, Alex Rotherham, befriended me on MySpace and I was interested to find out more about their on-line efforts to develop business.

Alex told me that a whopping 75% of new business coming to the restaurant results from their on-line efforts and that they are using the MySpace application to really develop a true network of clients that they can promote events and new menus to. He found that Facebook didn’t offer the same functionality to truly reach the right network. Given that Alex, like any new proprietor, is operating on a shoestring - social networking has allowed him to easily spread the word with very little cash outlay.

“The key to MySpace marketing is having as many friends (in your targeted segment) as possible and that takes time”, said Alex in between greeting guests.

Every business new or established should seriously consider the value of social network and new media marketing not only because its more likely to hit the mark than traditional mass marketing efforts but it also costs less - way less.

The bain of my life and perhaps of anyone attempting to conduct legitimate business using the Internet is spam. On a daily basis I receive literally hundreds of spam e-mails trying to sell me something or other that I don’t need. Like most people, I’ve installed an Internet security a application with a spam filter and yet it still gets through. On the day I published my first corporate blog, I was inundated with unwanted e-mail posted to my site most of it simply disgusting.

Luckily, there’s a lot you can do to arm yourself in the battle against this unwanted intrusion. I could live to regret this but I’d like to share with you some tools that you can use to help you reduce the amount of spam you (and your audience) have to see.

If you have a blog and have your blog page set up to receive comments, you’ll likely have been the recipient of unwanted comments and trackbacks from spammers. One of the best ways to deal with this is to set up your blog so that comments must be okayed prior to posting. Another essential tool is blog spam blockers. Akismet is at the forefront of this helping Wordpress users to avoid spam by allowing them to easily download a plugin that filters and stops these messages. Other software such as Captcha protects against spam in many forms to protect blogs, wiki’s, feedback forms etc. Yet more applications and add-ins allow you to download and use spam blacklists to block them out such as Habeas.

If you have a blog or use a wiki, there are many sites out there dedicated to countering the efforts of spammers. One of my favourites is the SpamHuntress which has a running documentary of counter spam tips and real world experiences.

For more ways to protect yourself against general spam read: The Top 10 Most Popular Anti-Spam Tips, Tricks and Secrets by Heinz Tschabitscher.

I had the opportunity tonight to attend my first Professional Women’s Network meeting and I must say what a pleasure to meet so many smart ladies doing invaluable work, especially given the typically male dominated events I have been attending of late.

But enough of that, I want to talk about the presentation which was given by AHA Creative Strategies co-founder and CEO, Ruth Atherle called “Maximizing the Power of Web Communication Tools” and specifically the security issue that came up.

Ruth did an excellent job in discussing the advantages to having a corporate blog and the reasons why every company should have one such as establishing your credibility and driving prospects to your web site.

The talk quickly came around to the perceived downsides to blogging and I’d like to provide a brief synopsis of the security issue: how safe and secure is it to blog?

It’s a question that has constantly plagued Internet business innovators and Ruth countered it well by pointing out that the Internet is in many ways safer than the physical world in that you have a barrier between you and potential harm doers:the worst that can be done is to place unwanted comments on your blog and you can counter these by looking on them as an opportunity to address the issue in a positive manner the public forum, choosing to vet all comments before posting or, as a last resort and unlikely to happen you can contact a lawyer.

It was noted that bloggers are in general upstanding members of the community and are loyal, when someone posts inappropriate comments they tend to rally round in support.

As far as I am concerned, I believe that we all have a right to our opinions and if we wish to use blogging as a means to share our knowledge and establish our areas of expertiese we should feel comfortable in doing so. However, anyone who is ready to put up a business blog must accept that it will open their business up to critisicm and counter opinions and they should put in place policy guidelines to help guide contributors and establish limits.

Here’s a link to AHA’s blog which has some great resources for anyone seriously considering blogging as a means to enhance their marketing efforts.

Many companies do great damage to their brand when developing or enhancing their web presence. Avoid these pitfalls by reading the following articles written for FMWalsh and Associates that discuss how to effectively brand your web presence.

Creating A Successful Corporate Internet Brand - Part 1
Creating A Successful Corporate Internet Brand - Part 2

Corporate Blogging for Results

A corporate blog builds awareness and loyalty among prospects, customers and employees. It helps you establish your company’s expertise in its field and is a great medium to communicate customer service updates and tips. Not only that but a regular blog can improve search engine standings phenomenally making it easier for your intended audience to find your company first. Not ready to blog, consider using this forum for PR or to research your industry.

Out-Smarts Corporate Blog Services Include:

• Blog Strategy and Planning - determining your road map for blog success;
• Blog Implementation Services - design and set up attention grabbing branded blogs;
• Blog Management - making it easier for your audience to find you both today and in the future;
• Blog Content Expertise - publish great blog content;
• Blog Promotion - Services to reach and grow your blog audience;
• Blog Research - the blogosphere is an invaluable forum for market research - use it!;
• Blog PR - attract blogger attention and spread the on-line buzz.

Blogging should be a vital component in any company’s marketing arsenal. Let Out-Smarts work with you to determine the best way to harness this technology. Contact Out-Smarts now. Read more

Mhairi Petrovic spoke to my group on the power of building relationships through social networking. Mhairi was an excellent speaker—informative, articulate and entertaining. She adapted her talk to meet our specific needs and we all learned so much from her. I highly recommend Mhairi as a speaker. Tracy Urban, Founder, Storyheart Productions

Thank you for helping me realize my website’s true potential by blogging, where I can share my passion about professional organizing. Emma Cooper, Principal, Clarity Jane Professional Organizing Agency Ltd.

“Thank you for sharing your time and knowledge with our BC Chapter. With great appreciation.” Professional Organizers in Canada, BC Chapter

“Out-Smarts worked diligently to come up with an e-mail solution that meets my needs”. Robin Arora, Robin Arora Real Estate

“Technorati, Feedburner, Akismet, Google, Yahoo, Adsense…. with such rapid technological developments it’s difficult to see the forest from the trees. Thankfully Out-Smarts was here to help us out. We didn’t have to figure out the how, why and where to register our blog. Out-Smarts tookcare of the nitty-gritty details and as a result, our blog is much more activeand successful.”Christine Rondeau, Founder, Bluelime Media

“I am delighted that we have the opportunity to work with Out-Smarts. Mhairi provides a service that helps our company take advantage of the benefits blogging offers - without having to worry about the technical processes. The result? FM Walsh has more traffic coming to the site, andregular posting is so much easier. I recommend any company wanting tobreathe life into a corporate blog consider working with Out-Smarts.”Fiona Walsh - CEO and Founder, FM Walsh and Associates

“Out-Smarts played a major role in bringing PeopleMaps to the North American market, I would not hesitate to recommend them to other small to mid size organisations looking to expand their horizons. “Martin Gibbons, CEO, PeopleMaps Ltd.

“Within a short period of time Out-Smarts learned everything there is to know about our company and product. Once an understanding of our needs was attained, prospective client lists, communication scripts and appointments were set up. Out-smarts people are very personable and customer focused.”Andre Coetzee, ROWe Business Solutions

“Talk about value! We needed to test the waters with direct sales and Out-Smarts provided a great solution for us. We received lots of leads for sales that were acquired in a professional and committed manner. Bravo and thank you!”Ariane Laird - President and CEO, ConnectsUs Intranet Inc.

“Out-Smarts has a strong understanding of the business implications of implementing CRM systems and has excellent communication and people skills which focus on customer satisfaction.”Darren Schrader, Company Controller at LMI

“Out-Smarts provides highly dedicated, structured and professional sales services that drive results.”Sean Gocher, President, TenDigits Software Inc.

“This unique strategic partnership builds on over 20 years of combined experience to offer clients a realistic and affordable solution to international sales and marketing requirements.”Julie Anderson, Ubiquitous Marketing

Little wonder companies are turning to the Internet to help them hone in on their target audience and market more effectively, considering that traditional marketing simply doesn’t hit the target any more: with “satisfactory” response rates as low as 2%. Internet marketing has so much more to offer.

It’s difficult to decide where to start and what to do to make the most of the enormous marketing opportunity that the web brings.

Are you standing on the precipice trying to decide how to leap? If you are then, consider Out-Smarts’ highly effective Internet marketing services:

Strategy-Smarts
It’s not good enough to simply slap up a web-site and hope that visitors will come; they won’t. Out-Smarts works with companies to develop and implement strategies that are honed to attract your target audience.
Learn more

Blog-Smarts
Corporate blogging is being used today to establish and reinforce expertise; enhance customer service; improve communication flow; reach more people and better web ranking.
Learn more

Email-Smarts
It costs at least twice as much to get a new customer than it does to keep an existing one. Email is a great forum to keep your corporation at the forefront of customer thoughts so that they think of you first when an opportunity comes up.
Learn more

Social-Smarts
Spread awareness by marketing to your target audience in their favorite online hang outs: social networks; image and video sharing sites; wikis; professional networks;bookmarking sites etc.
Learn More

Ad-SmartsMore decision makers surf the web when researching a purchase decision than ever before - make sure your offering stands out by using Internet advertising to attract their attention.
Learn more

Get smart! - minimize your risk and maximize your Internet marketing potential by contacting Out-Smarts today.

I came upon a good article by Ryan Whelton called Selling With a Blog that discusses the benefits to corporate blogging in terms of increased sales, enhanced market exposure and improved search engine positioning. It gives examples of companies that have implemented this technology and describes the measurable benefits they have seen.

The subject of wikis came up at a recent meeting so I thought I would repost this gem from last year explaining what wikis are and how they are being used today.

In a recent post I talked about new media marketing and the plethora of tools it brings to marketers. In that article I promised more articles looking at new technologies that can be used by marketers to more effectively serve their customers and spread the word. Today I am going to focus on wikis.

A wiki is a website application that allows users to collaborate. They can update and change content very easily. Wikis are simple to use and easy to set up and best of all, costs aren’t excessive.

Until recently, I hadn’t realised the marketing potential that wikis provide. I attended the most recent Case Camp Vancouver where a local Vancouver organisation called Open Road Communications showcased a successful implementation of its Thought Farmer intranet portal - a wiki based platform that allows employees to post/make changes, interact and setup discussion groups that in turn build strong corporate identities and cultures. If you want to be successful marketing your product to the external community, you must first and foremost believe in your offering by succesfully marketing internally to build brand identity and corporate culture within the organisation and wiki based tools help you do do this.

Wiki’s are not just useful as internal portals. They also present a great way to enhance customer service. An online wiki that allows both internal and external users of your product/service to share tips/improvements and to generally help them get the most from your offering can only serve to enhance the user experience.

I was talking about wiki applications to Julie Anderson, Director of Marketing at Peoplemaps a client in Scotland that provides on-line pyschometric analysis for employers and jobseekers and she brought to my attention some of the neat wiki applications they use. They take advantage of software from PBwiki to allow online partner collaboration as well as to provide a media centre that is easily updated by employees and gives all the information potential clients, media and folk like me need to know about the organisation. People maps is also using wikis internally to allow easy and cost effective collaboration on new software projects (their developers are in the Ukraine and its saving them a ton on phone calls) and to provide an internal portal for their staff (similar to the Open Road application). For more information, check out the Peoplemaps blog On the map: Easy as making a sandwich?

In addition to the customer service enhancements and internal marketing applications, wikis can also be used to reduce the load on e-mail servers by collaborating via wiki rather than sending large documents via e-mail; they have great potential to improve CRM applications by allowing remote teams to share client information and they can act as a great central repository for file sharing.

If you want to check out some of the enterprise wiki solutions out there, go to:

www.socialtext.com
www.jotspot.com- now owned by Google
www.pbwiki.com
www.atlasian.com
www.twiki.com

Good collaborating!

I wrote an article recently for Bluelime Media called “RSS not so simple after all!” that talked about RSS from the user perspective. Now I want to look at RSS from the corporate perspective.

Incase you didn’t read the article, RSS is a means by which information can be easily be published and made available to subscribers in a central on-line repository.

From a corporate standpoint, their are many reasons to take advantage of RSS both to publish information and for research:

1. RSS makes it easier for prospects to find your articles;
2. subscribers get the latest and greatest information;
3. helps establish connections to your web site and drive traffic;
4. gives you the ability to research multiple sources at once;
5. great tools for disseminating information throughout the organisation.

So as an organisation, how would you set up an RSS Feed? The first thing you have to do is contact your web designer and find out if your site is set up to support a syndication feed (if you have a blog you may already have a feed set up). If not, its easy to set one up by entering a few lines of code - check out O’Reilly for help to do this.

Once the feed is set up, you should let people who visit your site know by adding the RSS Feed button which usually looks something like this:

I created the graphic for free by signing up with Feedburner but I am told you can do the same with FeedForAll. Having the button on your site in a prominent place will allow people to easily click to set up a feed that brings your article directly to them as its updated.

To complete the process, have your web designer add code to your website templates so that the RSS feed readers can find your posts and submit your feed to syndicators and search engines to make it easier for your audience to find you.