Want to Make a Splash on the Web? What to Do Before that Big Cannonball

From Hugo Guzman:

What I told that they needed to do, before being able to collect the social media currency they coveted:

• Build a website that is conversion friendly and sticky (e.g. is intuitive and makes it easy for users to interact with it and share with friends)
• Begin engaging within relevant Facebook groups & posting on relevant Facebook pages (not with promotional messaging, but instead with content that adds value to the community)
• Begin following relevant Twitter users and retweet the content of said Twitter users
• Begin commenting on influential blogs and forums (not with promotional messaging, but with content that adds value to the community)
• Begin linking to said blogs and forums from within their own site’s content
• Begin attending industry events and mingling with influential peers (don’t just promote yourself or your brand. Add value to the conversation)
• Begin to gradually connecting with these influencers via email and other online  communication channels (not to promote yourself, but to genuinely connect and add value to their efforts)
• If they have a substantial email database, start thinking about innovative ways to encourage email subscribers to engage with your social profiles and social content (some of your subscribers might be influencers)
• Think about the proportion of your perspective consumers that prefer to consume contact via mobile devices (including tablets) and then figure out what you’re going to do to accommodate them (some of your niche’s influencers might prefer mobile formats)

What are You Doing with Mobile Connection?

Mobile is a simple, easy addition to enhance awareness as a companion to other marketing.

When it comes to awareness, one of the biggest (and most expensive) opportunities is advertising during the Super Bowl – an estimated $2.6 million per 30-second spot. While the rest of the crowd was watching and trying to decide their favorite commercial last year, I was taking careful note of how these big-ticket advertisers actually had a mobile-friendly destination as part of their campaign.

In my not-so-scientific observation, of the 27 advertisers who shelled out millions each for massive commercial exposure, 23 of them did not have a mobile web destination available.

So, why does that matter?

http://lunchpail.knotice.com/2011/01/24/adding-mobile-to-enhance-advertising/

Ideas for Action...,

Word of Mouth is the Articulate blog, hosted by Director of Customer Advocacy Gabe Anderson.
Gabe loves to share his passion for all things tech and enjoys learning from Articulate customers around the world.
Contact Gabe or follow him on Twitter here.

13 Cool E-Learning Ideas You’ll Want to Get Your Hands On

Monday, January 17th, 2011 by jeanette

1 Comment

This guest blog post is by Articulate Community Manager Jeanette Brooks.

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Yep, it’s Monday and we’re back with another recap of how-tos, conversations, tips, and insights from the Articulate community. Below you can check out a generous handful of all kinds of good stuff from the week that just ended.

http://www.articulate.com/blog/13-cool-e-learning-ideas-youll-want-to-get-your-hands-on/

"How To" Activate & Deploy Your “Ambassador Army”

Occasionally, when we present a client with a robust communications plan, chock-a-block full of public engagement strategies, we get the “deer in the headlights look” and an exasperated “we can’t deliver on this plan, we don’t have the manpower!”. The irony of this is that every company we propose an aggressive approach to actually does have the resources to engage the public, in the form of a built-in-army of ambassadors, AKA your employee base. A group of committed, engaged, educated and loyal people, many of whom are proud of what they do and proud of you as their employer.
A great example from 2010 was Edelman client TransLink engaging their employees to work out on the transit system during the 2010 Olympics to provide directions and encouragement to locals and visitors to the city. The approach was well received by the public and employees felt trusted and valued by their employer. A word of warning here however, we are not advocating to send your staff out willy-nilly into the world unarmed, like lemmings over a cliff. And we are certainly not suggesting every employee is going to be your best spokesperson to the public.

http://edelmandigital.com/2011/01/26/activating-deploying-your-ambassador-army/

Amy Gallo: Managers who want to recognize employees for good work have many tools at their disposal.

Managers who want to recognize employees for good work have many tools at their disposal. One of the more traditional ways to reward a top performer is to give her a promotion or raise or both. But how can you know whether someone is truly ready for the next challenge or deserving of that bump up in pay? HR policies and company culture often dictate when and how people move up in a company. However, managers in most companies have a good deal of input into the decision, and in some cases they are the ultimate decision makers. Whether you have this authority or not, promotions and raises need to be part of an ongoing discussion with employees about their performance.

http://blogs.hbr.org/hmu/2011/01/when-to-reward-employees-with.html

Amy Gallo can be found on Twitter here.

Google Keyword Tool Accuracy (Review)

Recommendations

Based on the results, it is not recommended that you rely solely on Google's Keyword tool for predictions that require high accuracy and sensitive computations, such as sales. Customer expectations set using this raw data can be difficult to achieve, because of the high uncertainty of the predicted results when compared with the actual impression figures.

You can, however, use Google's Keyword tool as a “rough” guide or estimate, but it cannot be relied on by itself for making final financial decisions. In this case, it is recommended that you use the actual figures of search queries, such as those found in Google Webmaster Tools.

To provide much more accurate estimates, it is recommended that you use the “exact” match type in getting search volume figures that coincide closely with the actual impression data.

Finally, in keyword research, you can rely on Google's Keyword tool to determine those keywords that are good to target by simply looking at the search volume data. It cannot, however, be relied upon to provide accurate projections in terms of sales and actual traffic.

http://www.seochat.com/c/a/Google-Optimization-Help/Is-Googles-Keyword-Tool-Accurate-Analysis-Using-Actual-Data/1/

No Mobile Site? Don’t Make Your Customers Angry

Reflecting on all the Holiday hustle and bustle, thank goodness the shopping trips are over. Running from this store to that, fighting the crowds of folks frantically searching for the perfect gift and the best deals.

 

If you were anything like me, you found yourself standing in Toys R Us, staring at an empty shelf where that “just so perfect” gift used to be. After the initial panic subsided, what did I do? I grabbed my smartphone and went straight to the Internet. Was the item in stock online? Did another location have the item? Did a competitor have one?

 

http://lunchpail.knotice.com/2011/01/05/no-mobile-site-don%E2%80%99t-make-your-customers-angry/