@BasilPuglisi

Content & Strategy, Powered by Factics & AI, Since 2009

Digital & Internet Marketing

What is a Creative Commons License?

by Leave a Comment

With so much business being conducted online these days, it has become imperative to have methods to protect and copyright our works in a manner just as remote as how it was posted. Regardless of whether your work is writing, photography, or even coding or programming, you will want a means to ensure that regardless of what happens with those items, you are given credit for producing them.

When you apply for a Creative Commons license you can keep the copyright to your work, while allowing others to copy or distribute you work, as long as they give you proper credit, on the conditions you get to specify. You may choose to offer your work freely with no desire for crediting, or you may determine exactly the manner in which you want to be credited regardless of its use.

There are some more reputable websites that can help you to create your licensing for your work.

CreativeCommons.org  is an example of a reputable licensing site. You are able to choose a license and once done they will provide you with an HTML tag that will list your work as copyright restricted. However, CreativeCommons is not a registrar and will not retain records of your selections.

Flickr.com also offers create commons licensing and the format to help you protect your work. Flickr and CreativeCommons both have things in common. Their licensing types mirror one another perfectly.

CreativeCommons offers the following licensing options.

  • Attribution: An attribution license will let others tweak, change, build on, remix, distribute or otherwise alter your work, they also have to credit you for the original creation in the manner you request.
  • Attribution NoDerivatives: This particular license allows for commercial and non-commercial use, as well as redistribution, however, it must remain unchanged and all credit must go to you.
  • Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike: Like Attribution, users can tweak, alter, build on and distribute, however, they must credit you and license their own product or creation under identical terms.
  • Attribution ShareAlike: An attribution sharealike license will allow others to alter, tweak and otherwise build upon your original work for commercial purposes. They must however, credit you and license their own agreement under the same terms.
  • Attribution NonCommercial: Others can tweak, alter, rebuild or build upon your work for non-commercial purposes. Any new works should acknowledge the original creator and also be non-commercial.
  • Attribution NonCommercial NoDerivatives: The most restrictive license, this one only allows others to download or otherwise save your works and even share them with others as long as you are properly credited. This license does not permit users to alter your original creation in any way.

If you are new to creative commons licensing it may be important to read up before making the decision on your license choices.

This is also likely to be one part of your copyright policy and protection practices, an example of how this is used as part of a policy or image see: Copyright Info

Sources:

News and Social Media: The “New Media Press”?

by Leave a Comment

Social media has, without a doubt, changed how the established news media is handling The News. It has changed traditional media in the most important aspects; news gathering, news reporting and news distribution.

Factitious Example not a real press pass or any real affiliation.

  • News Gathering

One of the biggest benefits of social media is how quickly information can be discovered and shared. News organizations no longer are the main source of news, and they don’t “own” the news.

61% of adults get their news online – making it the third most popular news platform. Reporters have transformed from being the gatekeepers of information to gatherers of content from within a public space. Crowd sourcing it is called – the media of the masses, citizen journalism.

A number of top news stories were covered thanks to citizen journalism. The US plane which landed in the Hudson River, was first announced on Twitter. Twitter was also vital in the coverage of the Iranian elections and the unrest that followed.

  • New Reporting

The immediate and intimate coverage of the social media has inspired news organizations to create their own social media platforms. News agencies have come under tremendous pressure to beat citizen journalists by breaking news on the social wire. Social media enables real time updates. Readers get the information much faster thanks to sites like Twitter and Facebook. And that is especially significant in places were the regime controls the mainstream media and the internet; in Iran, Egypt, Jordan, Yemen, Bahrain for example. Rulers can no longer control the information their Subjects get, and the latest turmoil in the Middle East made it proof positive.

  • Blogs

Debate continues to the role and validity of bloggers. However, Social Media pioneer Erik Qualman made great examples of how bloggers can provide more accurate and timely information then traditional news sources. While the debate continues around their practice and standards, one could argue that those that call themselves professionals have just as many examples of poor professional practices as with which we have seen in the blog-o-sphere. The blogger is likely to be a writer of specific content within a specific community or genre, their work is fueled by passion, which makes it hard to believe they do not have valuable insight or a pivotal role to play in the age of the New Media.

  • News Distribution

Today’s news readers have very different expectations from content providers. News sites are embracing the importance of community by integrating social features. It is estimated that 37% of internet users have contributed to the creation of news, commented about them or spread a news item.

News organizations have embraced social media to spread their content through Facebook, Twitter, Digg and others. Since news has extended beyond the typed word and now encompasses multiple media formats like video, podcasts, live streaming and cellphone images, the kind of news media you get depends on your attention span.

The integration between mainstream media and social media was never more apparent than in the case of Al Jazeera network which is headquartered in Doha, Qatar. Not many people in the USA get that channel; it is not included in many cable packages. Yet, when the last events in Egypt enfolded and it became too dangerous for Western journalists to gather the news, Al Jazeera reporters were on the ground, among the crowd. Their reporting got to the world via Twitter and other social media platforms utilized by Al Jazeera, not through the mainstream media. A few days later the Al Jazeera office in Cairo was torched.

Journalists like Nicholas Kristof who writes for the New York Times, uses his Facebook page to add personal observations to what he writes for the official publication.

 “I’m more worried about the 500 million or so people of Facebook versus the 2 million of Fox.” said CNN president Jon Klein, in March 2010. The integration of social media into the news media is so deeply entwined today, that it is inseparable.

Sources:

Lessons in Social Marketing and PR Disasters

by Leave a Comment

While it is true that smart social marketing can increase your business, it is just as easy to make mistakes that can cost your business in customers and reputation. It is important to learn from mistakes done by others and try not to repeat them.

Mistakes by small business owners frequently go unnoticed by the media. But when a big company does a faux-pas, the media is all over them like a wet suit.

A few examples:

  • BP: Trying to do damage control in the aftermath of the oil spill, BP started pouring money into advertising and public relations. During that time, they drastically increased the amount of the PPC (Pay Per Click). Their logo stared at you from many search result pages, increasing the resentment many people felt towards the company. On another level, they had a hacker. Someone started a fake BP Twitter account and posted satirical tweets about the situation. Things like “Look, cut us some slack. We’ve kinda just been winging the whole ‘deepwater drilling’ thing.” Social Media sites level the playing field and the company could do nothing about it. The fake account had over 200,000 followers and the real BP account had about 15,000. Today the fake Twitter account went dormant, and the real BP is up and updating regularly.
  • Nestle and Greenpeace: Nestle is a big company with many interests, thus is makes it easier to target. When Nestle announced a new product that includes Palm Oil, Greenpeace launched a campaign protesting against the palm oil because the production causes detrimental environmental effects, and cut on the habitat of orangutans. Nestle tried, unsuccessfully, to take their video down from YouTube and that caused the rage of many. People started commenting disparaging remarks on the company’s Facebook page. The company became defensive and posted “We welcome your comments, but please don’t post using a altered version of any of our logos as your profile picture – they will be deleted.” Becoming defensive and arrogant on social media will almost always turn out badly. Nestle eventually apologized, but the damage was done.
  • AT&T: A disgruntled customer wrote an e mail to the CEO of the company, complaining about the way he was treated. After sending two e mails, he heard nothing back from the CEO, but did hear back from the legal department threatening him with legal action if he will not cease and desist sending e mails to the CEO. The customer took it to the blogosphere and to Twitter and even posted the recording of the legal department. The story went viral and was picked up by news organizations. AT & T apologized, but the damage was done.
  • Honda: When Honda launched its hybrid “Crosstour” it gave a sneak peak of the design on its Facebook page. Fans were not impressed and wrote about it. One follower posted an extremely positive remark, and proclaimed how much he loved the design. It didn’t take long for fans to discover that the poster is no other than Honda’s Product Manager. Resorting to deception, Honda attracted the anger of fans. It apologized for using that tactic.
  • Domino’s Pizza: You probably remember the video which was uploaded to YouTube by Domino’s employee, showing what one employee does with the cheese (he stuffed it in his nose before putting it on the pizza). The video went viral and was picked up by the news media. Even though Domino’s swore that pizza was never delivered, it suffered a big financial loss. This is a good example of the destructive power of social media. It took Domino’s weeks to straighten things out, and this one video cost them a lot of money in customer loyalty.

 

What Does this mean?

Businesses and Organizations better get a handle on Social Media in a proactive way, policies need to be developed that invest time into employee education about social media. This provides two opportunities, first it helps prevent events and issues like this from taking place in the first place. Second, and more importantly, it provides companies with the opportunity to use the new media sources as tools for communication, outreach and sales.

Taking a proactive approach allows a company to develop a history of interaction and creates a more complete picture of its practices and personnel. This is useful in two big ways: It helps challenge bad media as it ends up one touch point or instance in a mist of values of positive history. It also educates a staff on how to handle an issue based on which form of new media the issue developed.

“Look at the New Media as a opportunity not a threat, in most cases it provides a chance to have a business, organization or individual shine, displaying who they are and what they can do. Now that’s credibility and value!” Basil C. Puglisi

Sources:

What is the SxSW? Why Would I attend?

by Leave a Comment

What is SXSW?

The SXSW, or the South by Southwest festival and conferences, regularly offers a widely diverse group of entertainment seekers the opportunity to find independent films, original music, and even up-to-date, and up-and-coming technologies.  

SXSW for Entertaining Marketing

Marketing is, of course, always targeted to those who can use a business’s products or services the most. The SXSW harbors the atmosphere for creating growth for creative and professional discovery for any and all ages and a large array of niches.

This huge pool of ideas in creative content, media presentations and musical and audio content can provide many opportunities for businesses and even for social media promotion.

How Can Business and Social Media Persons Benefit from SXSW?

The great thing is that the complex diversity of presentations during SXSW also provides a complex and diverse, almost limitless, list of marketing options.

First of all, this set of events is highly anticipated by many, giving any business person loads of time, indeed a year if needed, to plan their business and marketing strategies, and execute them intermittently.

Second, the opportunity for networking your business, its products and services, as well as its capabilities relevant to as many niches as your business caters to, is immense. This is definately the place to bring your impressive business cards, flyers, newsletters and all related material to show off and shine.

Third, you can freely sit in on some informative and highly motivational discussions and group sessions that will feature some of the leaders in the industries’ who have much wisdom to impart on any listeners.

With over 36,000 industry representatives at SXSW, you are sure to find some great new ideas to carry home to promote your own ventures, or even to delve into new ones.

Trade Show Exhibition Opportunities

Does your business directly correlate with one of the industries covered at the SXSW conferences? If you have products or services to offer the interactive, music, and film industries, than you may very well have a place as a Trade Show Representative. This could mean big business, big promotion and plain old enormous marketing capabilities, four days worth.

What Type of Business Does SXSW Need?

They need anyone from the newest start-up business with innovative ideas, to established companies and brands. Anyone who has an industry targeting studios, film, music and technology education, marketing agencies, associations, commissions and all related non-profits. Additionally there is also room at SXSW for:

  • SEO or other Marketing Services
  • Software and Hardware Manufacturers and Creators
  • Hosting and Infrastructure Providers
  • Social Media Services
  • Media Outlets

It may help to draw a more detailed conclusion on who and what types of businesses are the current exhibitors. As once you have full understanding of the types of industries allotted space at SXSW, you may actually discovery a new aspect of your own business or services’ possibilities.

Source:

Foursquare – Location Marketing and Check-in Technology

by Leave a Comment

Although the knowledge of location marketing may be old news to some, to those who are just tuning into the usage of Smartphones and as well as other advanced mobile digital equipment, it may be an entirely new concept to others.

I did an article about FourSquare a few months ago, but in review I thought it be useful to take a bigger step back and reevalute this so new visitors could see a better picture, or blog! (Original Blog Entry – Promotional Social Interactive – FourSquare)

Simple Concept?

It is indeed as simple as it sounds. Location marketing is marketing that is targeted to people based solely on their geographic location. With GPS available on Smartphones, this type of marketing is not only much more realistic, but much more lucrative. With the huge influx of Smartphones and other similar mobile devices, location sharing services seem to be drawing a large crowd.

Foursquare was quite possibly the first location marketing and sharing service to succeed. With Foursquare, Smartphone users can check in with nearby friends and family as well as take advantage of possible discounts from other Foursquare members in the area. With a unique rewards system that encourages users to take advantage of its features, it seems to have no trouble keeping many users rapt.

Who is Taking Advantage of Foursquare?

Although there are certainly specific demographics, usage can also vary depending on aspects of each locale. The statistical answer is that only around 4% of web users were utilizing the location-sharing services available to them, however, this still amounts to around 38.9 million people, certainly no small market. It is predicted that location-sharing services are expected to double between the years of 2010 and 2015.

Currently primary users are mostly younger men who use it to check in all around town to some of their favorite places, or with their favorite people. Over 70% of reporting male internet users between 18 and 34 say they have previously or currently use their location-sharing services capabilities. Females around the same ages report about a 64% usage of the same services.

Foursquare Highlights

The lady hunter. Wheretheladies.at uses Foursquare to do one simple thing, locate the ladies in the locale. Foursquare will actually retrieve public data from locations nearby and direct you towards the one with the highest density of ladies. Talking about tracking down the ladies! However, I think this is just technologically advanced enough to be considered unique and cool, and not stalky and worrisome.

  • National Foursquared?

The National Archives and Records Administration has been Foresquared. You can now check in at the George W. Bush library with Foursquare. You can now say you have step foot into the place where all former presidents have deposited some of the most important papers and archives associated with their terms. The claim is that by joining Foursquare with the National Archives, social medias can help to invite users to learn more about their nations history.

  • Check into Dinner

While McDonalds and Dominos have reported relatively good check in responses, there has been no real measure taken of just how good, and why it mattered. Even these corporate giants have no idea how many additional people, or extra sales the check in offer even generates.

  • The Best Check in Ever, The Big Game

The Superbowl has Foursquared itself too. On the recent Superbowl they created a special Foursquare badge that has fans checking in and being given a code that can be redeemed at NFL shops for up to 20% off of their merchandise.

  • Foursquare My School

Syracuse University became the third school to gain its own badge that users were able to unlock by checking in. Harvard and Stanford Universities also have their own badges as well.

There is no doubt that this kind of marketing capability could mean endless possibilities, and an endless flow of people in your area looking for your own products or services. It seems like it is just a matter of technology in mobile devices becoming more common in worldwide users, that may be preventing Foursquare from turning into a widespread GPS type of service that only directs us to where we actually want to go.

Sources:

Your Book: A look at Publish America

by Leave a Comment

Publish America, or PA, is a Print-on-Demand, traditional royalty paying book publishing company. Since Publish America only prints books as they are ordered, they are able to extend authorships to many talented writers. PA believes that if one single book is worth being published, it only need have the idea of a market for it to be accepted by PA editors.

Publish America Facts

PA has nearly 40,000 satisfied authors. Every day, around fifteen of those authors ask PA to accept their subsequent works. This is an incredibly high number of return writers and one of the reasons why PA is known as one of the best print-on-demand companies available.

Although PA may have lower acceptance barriers than other publishing companies, they also have to be choosy in accepting manuscripts that meet the PA requirements. There are no contract fees with PA, ever.

PA authors have made appearances on FOX TV, ABC, MSNBC and CNN. Also the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and Women’s World Magazine. PA authors have even been heard on some of the famous radio shows such as Rush Limbaugh, Oliver North and Don Imus.

PA is not a subsidy publisher, vanity press or publish on demand company. PA does not charge for their services. No catches or hidden surprises, and PA even regularly pays small advances to their authors to show their support. PA does not want an authors money, they only want rights to their books, and it stops there. The copyright, TV rights, movie rights, merchandising and audio rights will remain under the authors legal rights. Book publishing contracts expire after seven years instead of the life terms of many publishers.

Almost all of the biggest publishers use digital technologies for printing. The print-on-demand form of publishing is used by other publishers such as Random House.

They will assign a graphic designer to create your book cover, and also take suggestions and ideas from the author.

Publish America Issues

With such a huge amount of books and authors cycling through Publish America yearly, there are also a few problems.

  • Authors report that graphic designers are not always willing to take their ideas when it comes to their book covers, the second most important aspect of their creations.
  • Although Publish America does provide an editing service at no cost, it can be extremely time-consuming. If you do not plan to have your book proofread by an outside service, expect an average wait for editing of around 3 to 6 months.

Sources:

How to Protect Copyrighted Work for Social Media Week

by Leave a Comment

There are many ways to copy protect your original works. It may depend on how much convenience you require, or simply how much funding you have to invest in it. Here are a few great options for protecting your original works.

  • Declare it! Make a Statement!

Add copyright notices to all of your work. Be sure to use the format of Copyright OR ©, the copyright symbol itself. Followed by the year the item was created as well as the name of the creator. An example for me would be ©2011 Basil Puglisi.

  • Register with the US Copyright office.

Register your copyright. This will immediately establish public records and is imperative in case you ever have to bring a copyright infringement case to a court. You will need to send your completed application form that relates to the works you are copyrighting, along with any fees required, as well as two copies of the work to the US Copyright Office. You have up to 5 years to do this, but it is highly suggested to do it as soon as possible to avoid red tape in an infringement case.

  • Other Paid Services

With Click & Copyright, you have a more wrapped up package. They do start at around $79 USD but can provide you copyright options on all forms of media, as well as help you monitor for infringement issues.

  • Free Services

Myfreecopyright offers many free resources and helpful tools to get your content protected as soon as possible, with or without upfront money. You simply need to upload your content to their server. A digital fingerprint of your content is captured, logged and stored. It is also emailed to you. This creates a safety net to protect your original work as well as register it. This service is entirely free and a great one.

Consider copyrighting all of your work, anything from eBooks, to pictures, to your personal blog content are all at risk until you do so.

 

Should you find that your work is being used elsewhere, be prepared to file or have someone file and enforce your rights under the DMCA.

©2011 Basil Puglisi

Sources:

 

Happening Right Now in NYC: Social Media Camp

by Leave a Comment

As this blog publishes the rooms in the “Social Media Hotel”, the Roger Smith (@RSHotel) in NYC are coming alive and broadcasting socially, both in traditional and digital form. The rooms are filled with the very enthusiastic, the curious and the talented Social Media Enthusiasts of New York.

The reason? Social Media Camp: New York (@SMCNYC). As part of Social Media Week 2011 (#SMWNY) the Social Media Camp intends to bring people together with the intent to engage and inspire the Social Media community.

The internet has changed the very essence of how we market, advertise and fulfill the promotional obligations of our products or services, no matter how large or small. While many aspects of our economy continues to suffer, social media is one outlet in which advertising, awareness and education is continually shared.

Marketing is no longer limited to trained and college educated individuals but has spread to those with tried-and-true experience regardless of their educational achievements. With so many social medias available, and free to use, this method of marketing is one that any business owner, organization or individual would be extremely unfortunate to miss out on. So what is all the hype? Do you need to understand every aspect of social media to be a player in this market? Do you have the time and capacity to learn what it takes? Or do you simply need to know ‘what’s what’ before you hire someone else to manage this aspect of your business for you.

Regardless of the reasons, Social Media Camp is a great answer for many. When you attend Social Media Camp you will learn:

  • What social media is
  • Whether or not social media is right for your career or business
  • If you determine that learning about Social media marketing would be of benefit to you, you will then be able to cultivate some invaluable skills that will help make a world of difference for you, your business and career

What Social Media Camp Offers

Social media camp will entail many aspects. Experienced guest speakers will cover such topics as:

  • Why social media week should be every week of the year
  • How to use social media as a free marketing tool
  • Learning to connect your social medias
  • Reaching parents and other large markets via online social media formats
  • Social media for small business owners
  • Social Media strategies
  • Finding the users, followers and friends that you need

And so much more. With plenty of food, camaraderie and common ground to stand on with so many others, you are sure to begin your social media networking experience the moment you walk through the door.

On Demand Happenings:

  • I will have more blogs coming to you during the day, stay tuned and stay “Social”!
  • Mention for the founder @SMCNYC  
  • Stay in the loop for social media week with #SMWNY
  • I will be checking in all day from @BasilPuglisi

Sources:

Best Practices for Creating New Content (Social Media Week 2011)

by Leave a Comment

It is said that 10% of the content available on the internet is original, and the other 90% is recycled from that 10%. With that highly likely statistic in mind, try to remember that although you may not be an expert on the topic you are given to create content for, it is quite possible to at least have the look of one.

  • Corner the Market on Your Personal Style

Have you had others tell you that they enjoy your writing style? Ask them why, and then build on it. Do readers like your straight-forward attitude? Do they prefer to read about vacation destinations as seen through your virtual, or even literal eyes? Readers have told you they like your attitude and the character that comes out in your text, hold that character to a standard, expect it to improve only for the better, and then see that it does.

  • Understand Copy Issues

Plagiarism is not only a moral no-no, it is also one that can get your content flagged, ignored and even penalized by search engines. For this reason, it is of utmost importance to understand that even if you always write ‘from knowledge’ or personal creation, it is still possible to duplicate content someone else has created. Be sure to use a copy protection program such as Copyscape or Dustball to check your work.

  • Understand Search Engine Optimization

No one says you have to push the letter, the keywords, or keyword phrases to the very edge of acceptable percentages, but if you are speaking on an item, topic or service, you may want to be sure you mention it at least a few times in a long article, a couple of times in a short one. Although managing the algorithms of search engines may be difficult for a novice user to understand, the simple understanding that to get attention, you must use the same words or phrases to describe something as someone would put into a search engine browser.

  • See the Whole Picture

What do you want this content to accomplish? See the whole picture before you begin to create the content. Work the best way for you to understand the start to finish. Create an outline or work erratically if need be, but be sure your finished product is what you envisioned it to be in the first place, and don’t accept any less. You are putting your name, your business and your websites professionalism on this content, be sure it meets the same standards other aspects of your business are expected to.

Don’t forget to join me at Social Media Camp: New York as part of Social Media Week 2011. I will be a co-presenter for “Content is King…” on Wed Feb 9 at 10:30AM at the Roger Smith Hotel in NYC.

Sources:

Basil C. Puglisi to present for SMC part of Social Media Week 2011.

by Leave a Comment

Feb 7, 2011 marks the beginning of Social Media Week 2011 in New York City, and as with every great week of events one organization sets itself apart from the rest.

Social Media Club is excited to be hosting Social Media Camp during Social Media Week NY 2011.

The event is open to people who work with small businesses, job seekers, and even those people in bigger businesses who do marketing and communications. We hope all of these people will come together to learn from each other.  Everyone who attends is a participant and hopefully a teacher too.

Basil Puglisi is joined by Amy Vernon of Blue Glass Interactive and Mardy Sitzer of Bumblebee Design & Marketing. The group will be facilitating the “Content is King…” session at 10:30am on Feb 9, 2011 at the Roger Smith Hotel.

The Session will examine how content is developed, executed and managed in the digital world of Social Media, as well as other digital medias. The session will look at how content is organized and tips for protecting your content while going viral. Expect this event to be fast passed and exciting as all three presenters have a rich history with Social Media including extensive blogging.

Basil C. Puglisi runs the blog Digital Media Marketing Educator which can be found at basilpuglisi.info or brandmarketingeducator.com. The blog looks at Digital Brand Management and how companies, organizations and individuals can maintain a proactive approach to brand through original content.