Automobile. 10 Harsh Truths About Corporate Websites | How-To | Smashing Mag. Advertisement We all make mistakes running our websites. However, the nature of those mistakes varies depending on the size of your company. As your organization grows, the mistakes change. This post addresses common mistakes among large organizations. Most of the clients I work with are large organizations: universities, large charities, public sector institutions and large companies.
The problem is that if you are reading this post, you are probably already aware of these things. 1. In many organizations, the website is managed by either the marketing or IT department. In reality, pursuing a Web strategy is not particularly suited to either group. Zeldman1 urges organisations to create a separate web division. Marketing, on the other hand, is little better. The Web is a conversation. Instead, the website should be managed by a single unified team. Put them in a division that recognizes that your website is not a bastard of your brochures, nor a natural outgrowth of your group calendar. 14 Reasons Why Enterprise 2.0 Projects Fail | Enterprise Web 2.0. Creating and nurturing a community is not something at which traditional stakeholders in software projects are often skilled. I've been having some very interesting conversations lately about Enterprise 2.0 failures with ZDNet colleague Michael Krigsman. He is doing research for his work on project failures in this area and is trying to understand the reasons why some Enterprise 2.0 initiatives don't succeed.
In preparing for our talk together, I ended up doing quite a bit of my own research and the results, at least for me, surfaced some fascinating stories and insights that are worth examining examining here in detail. It's a classic adage that we usually learn more from our failures than from our successes. Success itself has a palliative effect that makes one less introspective and over-confident of one's methods.
For one, IT doesn't seem to be in the driver's seat nearly as much with Enterprise 2.0. Venture Model + Rogue IT = Enterprise 2.0 Success? The Ethics, Or Lack Thereof, Of Ghost Blogging. “What do you think about ghost blogging?” It was a simple question from someone in the crowd for a recent talk I gave. I answered honestly, but carefully. It didn't matter. I was essentially speaking to a room which included 10-20 people who currently get paid to blog for people or companies as those people or companies. Unless I said I have no problem with it, I was doomed. The great thing about the people who took issue with my answer, at least those who approached or emailed me later, was they understood my stance but wanted to discuss the issue.
My answer that day was something along the lines of the following, which was captured by live blogger Heather Sokol: “Transparency is key in social media. I stand by that definition, but want to make sure we consider several different angles and perspectives on the issue. When I say “you” in that description, I'm referring to the company. It appears I am not the only one who questions ghosting as a practice.
These are very good people. Welcome to DEI Worldwide | DEI Worldwide. Using LinkedIn Groups To Drive Website Traffic | jasonyormark.co. Everyone knows that Linked In is THE social network for professionals, allowing you to create a living resume, perform targeted job searches, collect recommendations and connect with others. It wasn’t until recently however that I realized the potential of utilizing Linked In Groups to drive blog traffic. Ever since doing so, roughly 20% of my blog traffic comes from Linked In. In comparison, Twitter comes in at 14% and Facebook at 9%.
Direct traffic and Google account for the majority of the rest. For those of you not using Linked In Groups, here are the steps to take that will immediately give your blog or website a traffic boost. Find Linked In Groups that relate to the topic(s) you write about or provide on your site. Take these easy steps, and I assure you will see a significant increase in your blog or website traffic. Good Luck! A Quick ‘n Dirty Guide to Setting up Social Media Monitoring | S.
Kat French This may be a 101 level post for some, but I think it still bears putting out there. One of the things that I hear most often from people who are contemplating getting into social media is that it seems really overwhelming. With so many different services, blogs, and sites out there, small business owners and other marketers who are usually already stretched thin often figure that monitoring and participating in social media will require a time commitment and technical savvy that they just don’t have.
Not true. It’s better to participate at a level you can manage than to ignore social media altogether. So here is a quick and dirty guide to setting up basic social media monitoring, using free tools and only a half hour or less per day. Step 2. Step 3. Step 4. Step 5. Go back to Delicious. Look up your action tags and take care of those action items. Comment on the blog posts marked “comment.” Compile the “link” tagged items into a link post. Lather, rinse, repeat.Â. It's Who You Know - Maximizing Your Company's Social R.
Web Strategy: How To Integrate Social Technologies with Virtual. I’ve participated in dozens of online and virtual events, including created my own, below is a playbook to think about virtual events as they intersect with the social web. While the scope of this article is focused on online virtual events, many of these tips can be used in real world events and the like.
Traditional Online Events Vendors Recognize Impacts of Social My focus on social technologies continues to spread to many verticals, industries, and experience. Virtual events, where companies host attendees through a digital online experience, continue to captivate marketers. It’s good for attendees, as they can experience a virtual online event event during an economic downturn, and continue to rely on virtual events for making decisions. Planners must develop a Pre, During, and Post strategy that integrates social. Have a “before’ strategy. Integrate existing social tools during an event, thereby increasing interaction. In the Future, Virtual Events Must Integrate Social. 10 ways PR and marketing are every bit as powerful as trusted pe. If your reading was restricted to social media purists, you'd think that PR and marketing had no role left to play, that the rise of the trusted peer has so marginalized the communications profession that agencies everywhere should just fold up their tents and encourage their employees to learn a new trade.
The purists are right, but only if marketing and PR counselors ply their trade exactly as their predecessors did 30 years ago. Most don't. Gone are the days of expecting a press release to generate media coverage; instead, they're used primarily for SEO, to reach consumers directly and for a few other reasons that have nothing to do with the reason their original mission. More and more, marketing professionals develop two-way efforts and interact with communities. These days, “spin” is more likely to mean ensuring the story is told in a way that's meaningful to the audience rather than twisting a client's response to an issue to make them look good. That's right. Homepage | Sprout.
People Search | Find People | Spokeo. Web Content Management, Campaign Management, Email Marketing, So. SM2. How to Kill A Community in 10 Easy Steps. There has been a lot of buzz lately about the how many empty or failed online communities litter the web. As with any hype-cycle, people run out to get or make the latest thing - in this case a social network or community - and often don't think through what having one will be like.
It's kind of like getting a puppy - exciting at first, but hard work thereafter! So, the question at hand is how to keep your community alive and thriving? Or, on the flip side, here are the top 10 ways to (inadvertently) to kill an online community: 1) Launch your community without a beta group. Do not involve users in the design of the community under the auspices that you know better than they do what they want. 2) Throw feature-spaghetti at the wall and hope something sticks.Add as many new and cool features to your (business) community and clutter it with bells and whistles. 3) Don't "feed" your community once it is open. 5) Assume size is THE critical differentiator.
Connect: Authored by: Vanessa DiMauro. How To Kick Start A Community –an Ongoing List « Web Strategy by. One of the top 10 questions in social media marketing asked is “How do we kick start our community?” This post aims at providing some resources for brands that are preparing their community strategy. The old adage of the field of dreams isn’t true -if you build it–they won’t neccesarily come. Brands must have a kick start plan to be successful with their community. Below, I’ll list out some practices I’ve heard from companies that have had successful communities, and I’d ask you chime in and add more ways, let’s get started, I’ll be as specific and actionable as possible.
How to Kick Start A Community Create compelling content on a recurring basis. Brands sometimes create videos, podcasts, or stories on a daily or weekly basis that encourages members to come back.Reward users who fill out their profile. I’ve also signaled to some of the vendors in the community platform space to chime in –giving them the chance to strut their knowledge. 10 Things You Must Do to Earn Your Audience's Trust. Brandon Mendelson is the coordinator for the Business Card Build-Off, part of America's largest crowdfunded project, A Million High Fives.
Follow @BJMendelson for project updates. Lincoln once said, "With the public trust, anything is possible. Without it, nothing is possible". Social media is now a daily activity that millions of people around the world consume and participate in. For those entrepreneurs who have increasingly turned to crowdfunding to fund their projects as advertising dollars dry up, earning trust has become especially important.
Below is a list of ten things you must do to earn the trust of your online audience. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Earning the public trust takes time. More social media resources from Mashable: Image courtesy of iStockphoto, mevans. 10 Creative Contests Powered by Social Media. David Spark (@dspark) is the founder of Spark Media Solutions, specialists in building industry voice through storytelling and social media. He blogs at The Spark Minute and is the author of "14 Successful Techniques for Building Your Industry Voice with Social Media" (PDF). Traditionally, companies hold contests to get people excited about their brand and to gather names for mailing lists to push even more promotions.
Now that social media is in vogue, there's no reason to limit a content submission to just a one-way promotional mailing list. Social media contests are multi-directional — they allow for increased customer engagement and content generation. With creativity and a thoughtful connection to your audience, a contest can provide a host of benefits beyond just a list of names. Bring people together 1. Every weekday the Downtown Ithaca Alliance hides a garden gnome somewhere in downtown Ithaca, New York. 2. Trivia is simply fun 3. 4. Make business decisions 5. 6. 7. 8. Work for us. 10 Harsh Truths About Corporate Blogging | How-To | Smashing Mag. Advertisement I have reached the conclusion that most organizations have a blog simply because they feel they should. Many marketing departments fail to “get” blogging and have poorly visited blogs with few comments.
Because their blog fails to perform, they conclude that blogging is an ineffective marketing tool and either remove it entirely or leave it to languish. However, it does not need to be this way. Corporate blogs can be a powerful communication tool that builds brand awareness and nurtures a sense of engagement. Why are most corporate blogs failing and why do the few succeed? We also discuss strategies for effective branding and marketing in our upcoming Smashing Book2 ($23.90 $29.90, available worldwide). 1. When companies first started launching corporate websites, they perceived them as a marketing channel that would generate leads. Many marketing departments are making a similar mistake with corporate blogs. 2. Building a readership is a long term commitment. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Brand vs. Brand Relationship: Let’s Not Confuse Them. Last night on our weekly PR 2.0 chat on Twitter (anyone can join this weekly chat Wednesdays at 8pm EST. Search on hashtag #pr20cat and join in!) , we discussed branding and PR 2.0 and why PR folks (and marketers, that's a topic on integration for another day!) Need to understand branding and how it affects their interactions with constituents (or publics). If you've hung out in social media circles long enough, I am sure you've heard “you don't own your brand, your customers do.” Nothing can be further from the truth and why we need to be very careful with how we phrase this as marketers, consultants, agencies, etc. FACT: You do own your brand and brand messagingFACT: You don't own relationships customers have with your brand For some people it's a chicken and egg situation.
People tend to identify with a brand (i.e. logo, message, etc.) first and then they relate to it. From “Driving Brand Value” by Tom Duncan & Sandra Moriarty (what I shared during the PR 2.0 chat): What do you think? Reports. Visible Technologies : Social Media Monitoring, Analysis & E. ESPN Responds to Criticism and Publishes Social Media Policy. Twitter is a strange animal. One man can tweet about an official change in ESPN's Twitter policy, and the world can respond. In fact, that's what happened earlier today when we reported on Ric Bucher's tweet that ESPN was "prohibiting tweeting info unless it serves ESPN.
" Just a few short hours later, the situation has bubbled up to a point where ESPN has publicly responded to the situation, going so far as to share their addendum to their rules and guidelines for social networking - the memo at the center of the whole ordeal. In fact, ESPN took to Twitter to tweet their official statement to us, well me specifically, and it's not only refreshingly honest, but the method of response was certainly well received. That's impressive ESPN, and to be completely fair, the social media guidelines, albeit a little vague and overbearing, are not as bad as we expected. Specific Guidelines.
26 Places to Find Free Multimedia for Your Blog. Nothing makes a blog post more eye-catching than a great header image, but not all publishers have artistic talent. And even accomplished digital creatives often crave some found material to start from or work with in a project. Luckily for all of the above, sources abound for finding a compelling photo to grab your readers' eyes and draw them in, or to locate fresh multimedia to remix. Creative Commons search You may be familiar with the Creative Commons free licenses that aim to give creators more freedom to allow sharing and remixing of their content. Here are several excellent spots to search large pools of Creative Commons-licensed images: 1. Free stock and public domain images Need a professional-looking image but don't have the budget for spendy stock photo houses? 5. WikiMedia Commons 12. Free audio sources Free video sources 20.
Further resources 24. More blogger resources from Mashable: Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Johnnyscriv. Seth's Blog: The bandwidth-sync correlation that's wor. Publications CPSA: The New Pricing Model For Social Media? 08/04. What the F**K is Social Media: One Year Later. Social Media CRM: What Are the Rules of Engagement? Enterprise Social Computing: Business Services Driving Enterpris. Five Conversations You Should Care About. 5 Ways Traditional Media is Going Social. 5 Easy Social Media Wins for Your Small Business. 7 Keys to Creating Social Media Strategy for Your Brand | design. 3 Keys to Improve Your Brand in Social Marketing | designdamage. Why Social Network Engagement is About Conversations.
The Importance of Social Media Audits « Web Strategy by Jeremiah. Social Media Mavens - An Interview with Kodak's Tom Hoehn - AddToAny - Share / Bookmark Button, Email Button, Subscribe Butt. You are Always On. Branded social networks offer more than ads | Webware. Five rules of thumb for social media advertising | VentureBeat. Breakdown: The Five Ways Companies Let Employees Participate in. Lithium - Powering the Customer Network. Charticle: PR and Social Media, a Five Year View - The Steve Rub. Get Ready As Corporate Sites and Social Networks Start To Connec. Presenting: 10 of the Smartest Big Brands in Social Media.
Why Big Brands Struggle With Social Media. The Importance of Focus: A Guide for Social Media Brands.