@BasilPuglisi

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

Digital & Internet Marketing

What is a Digital Brand?

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Digital brand is a collective impression of all that is posted online about a person or a business. Many people share their experiences, opinions and pictures using different social media platforms.  The total of this information is what creates a person’s digital brand.

The digital brand is like a credit report. It communicates the character, professionalism and reputation and how likely a person is to make smart decisions.

Same goes for businesses. Everything that is said, shared or complained online becomes the digital brand of the company. A paradigm shift which has occurred in the last few years between organizations, businesses and their consumers, governments and their constituents has changes the playing fields. The customers now have access to vast amounts of information; they are both mobile and connected, and they have more power to change the market.  How do organizations present themselves and engage in the marketplace is what digital brand is all about.

Due to the way the Internet is fast evolving, especially through the social web and social media sites, there is now a plethora of information that can be used to hold a dialogue between a Brand and a consumer, or groups of consumers. Digital brand engagement focuses on communication via the web. If in the past the exposure of your brand was most of the advertising work, it has changes so that engagement with the brand is becoming more and more important and taking the place of simple exposure.

Consumers can now be very selective about which brands they choose to interact with; and have the ability to communicate their thoughts and feelings globally. Brands can take notice of what is being said about them, their product or service by monitoring conversations taking place outside of their own website.

Digital Branding is the process of planning and managing communications to the user of your products or services. It is an extension to traditional marketing efforts employed to manage your business. Digital branding software enables you to track the activities of all your customers and monitor their interaction with your business. It will help you maintain intimate content with your customers and avoid customers feeling the effect of mass marketing to them. The resulting data can help you in planning future campaigns and tailoring responses.

Through “buzz monitoring” tools, and there are a number of tools to choose from, businesses can find out what is said about them. The value of the information provided can be increased further when the buzz monitoring data is correlated with the site analytics data. It’s important to listen and observe the buzz, and analyze its impact prior to engaging. Digital Branding helps marketers optimize their campaigns to maximize conversion rates.

For a successful digital branding you have to create experiences that are authentic and feel genuine, it has to be adaptive and to respond to the customer’s involvement. It has to be relevant and useful and appealing to the customer specifically. It has to be transformative, fresh and establish an emotional connection with the brand. The experience has to be immersive – they should lose track of time while engaging with the brand and it has to be social – enable sharing and contributing to the conversation.

When planned effectively, digital branding is a cost effective and often inexpensive method for extending and managing a brand, products and service awareness

Using Podcasts to Promote Your Business

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A Podcast is a prerecorded audio or video program you can upload to your website or post on hosting sites and is made available for people to download, listen and view. They can do it either on their computers, or on other mobile devices such as iPods, smart phones and iPads.

To put it simply, podcast is blogging with sound or video instead of text.

For those recordings to be considered a podcast there has to be a series of postings, creating a cross between a lecture and an advertisement for example.

A podcast is a series of digital media files that are released periodically and often, that can be downloaded through web syndication. Academics at the Community, Journalism & Communication Research group at the University of Texas propose a four-part definition of a podcast: A podcast is a digital audio or video file that is episodic; downloadable; program-driven and has a host and/or theme.

Podcasts are meant to entertain, inform and sell your products.

They are considered to be the most innovative way to market your business online, because they are cheap and relatively uncomplicated to produce. They can be done by anyone with a microphone and a video camera, and there are many venues to distribute them.

Podcasts are unique because the user is actively seeking them. Unlike advertisement that is forced on the listener or watcher, your podcast is something the user opts to listen to and give it his undivided attention. They establish a way for you to connect to your customers and create a brand in the global marketplace. In a way they are similar to the old radio shows when people tuned in to hear what will happen next.

Podcasts, unlike any other form of advertising solicits a subscription from the listeners. When a new podcast is released it is automatically fed to all those who are connected to the business.

Experts believe that listening to podcasts is more effective than reading a text. You cannot skim over a few lines, and jump all over the place. When someone is talking to you or showing you something you are actively seeking, there are better chances for undivided attention.

It is a regular line of communication between the business owner and the client helping build brand loyalty.

Making a podcast is smart business because:

  1. More people are looking for them these days. Customers get to know you, the business owner, through them. It creates familiarity with the business.
  2. Podcast can be played anywhere, anytime. If yours is an audio podcast it can be heard while driving or exercising. If it’s a video podcast, it can be watched on smartphones wherever they are; in line at the post office, during lunch etc.
  3. There is less competition today in the podcast world than in the article world.
  4. It is quick and less time consuming than blogging or having an article published in one of the article sites.

How to make your podcast effective?

-Make them search engine friendly. Just as with everything else on the internet targeting specific keywords is important and can make a difference between ranking next to nothing and getting high ranking. Make a keyword conscience decisions about the description of you podcast.

-Post them on Social network sites.

-Good Organization. A good organization of your podcasts is important in making it easy on your followers to choose what they want to hear or see. It will also make is convenient for people that come into you podcast in the middle of a series, to find the beginning of the thread.

-Offer RSS feed. If you don’t want to use e mail to alert your followers to a new podcast, offer subscriptions.

-Do some research. Subscribe and listen to other podcasts in you niche. Knowing what others are talking about it important. Learn from their mistakes. What struck you as good and what you need to stay away from. Make comments on other people’s podcasts to make yourself heard and known.

-Get feedback. Use it as a learning opportunity. Allowing interaction compels people to listen on.

-Write your copy carefully and choose your words wisely. If you do not have a pleasant voice, ask someone else to record it for you; an employee, a friend or hire a radio announcer.

Social Brand Visibility: BuzzFeed

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BuzzFeed, a company founded in October 2006, is a trend gatherer (‘aggregator’) that uses web crawling technology and human editors to link its users to the most popular stories around the web. It provides a snapshot of the viral trend in real time, all the time.

The home page contains a list of posts from users and staff. The content is usually a video, an image or a link. It is free for all to see, without registration.

With registration, every user creates his own homepage, opening with the interesting stories from around the web in the categories that he chose. The homepage also contains the links to their most recent contributions. As a way to encourage users to post links, there’s a scoreboard of how many times they have posted and how many times their posts reached the front page.

Users participate in the site by reacting to what others have posted with a system of badges. These are tags given to posts like “WTF”, “TRASHY”, “GEEKY”, “CUTE”, “OLD” or “LOL”. When enough users feel the same way about a post, the tag is attached to the post permanently alerting other users to its content.

The research done by the site is used by many bloggers, journalists and social media experts to gauge the pulse of the internet community.

In its best month (November 2010) BuzzFeed had 525,000 visitors a day, the majority of which are from the USA (371,000). It is less popular in the UK (37,000) and Canada (39,000) visitors.

Strategies for going Viral and creating Visibility!!!

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At the beginning of this month, in New York, a gathering of some of the most interesting people in the social media circuit took place. There were interviews with leaders of Foursquare, Gawker, Hulu, Yahoo, Bloomberg, Dow Jones, News Corp and more.

One of the presentations was by Jonah Peretti, the co-founder of The Huffington Post who serves today as the CEO of Buzzfeed. Peretti has been advising companies such as Procter & Gamble and Sony Pictures about their viral strategies.

If someone knows about going viral, it’s this guy, and what he said should be listened to;

–          The biggest network you have at the moment are the bored people sitting in their offices, connected to high speed internet. This network is bigger that all the traditional existing networks combined. Create something that will draw their attention so they will pass it around. Make it easy to understand, easy to share and include in social media.

–          Put the business in the front, but don’t forget the fun stuff. He calls it the “Mullet Strategy”. Keep your website serious and business-like in the front and all the crazy remarks in the back. Have a place on your site to start a conversation.

–          If you are dealing with a brand, you should spend some money on advertising. Pushing a new brand through viral means is very difficult. You should spend money to seed it around the internet, or as he calls it: “Pay for the seeds and get the viral for free”.

–          Target the maniacs. The web is ruled by people who gets worked up about a subject and do the work for you. “Content is more viral if it lets people express their personality disorders.” He says.

–          Spread the word. Make sure some people are carrying on your word, and keeping it alive. He brings an example from religion – the Mormon Church, which actively spread the word and recruiting members, is growing in numbers at a higher rate than any other, older religions. It’s not just the quality of the idea that counts, it’s the effort you put into spreading it.

Now think how you can apply these 5 principles to your business.

Some Knowledge For Creating A Small Business Website

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There are a few things that you will need to know in order to successfully build and maintain a website for your small business. These things are mostly common sense issues, but a few of them are things that only the top flight business people really focus on and have now mastered. You have seen just how successful some of the big companies have gotten with their online advertising, so if you want a piece of that action, here are a few things to take note of.

For one, you will need to have a clear idea of what the purpose of the website is going to ultimately be going forward. As you business expands, you will need to kind of make adjustments on the fly. Your customers need to feel safe and secure that you and your partners know what they are doing and are able to keep up with the ever-changing marketplace. Be precise in your marketing plan and things should fall into place quite nicely.

Another thing to take note of is to know right off the bat exactly what you are going to need in order to run a successful website. Whether you think that some video advertising or maybe some audio clips will do the trick to attract more and more people to your site, you will have to have a plan set up no matter what direction you decide to go in.

Also, you will need to have a good idea as to what to expect in terms of profits and website clicks from the very start of the site to even as far down the line as five years. We all know that it is pretty much impossible to predict a fluctuating marketplace too far down the road, but with the right people at the helm and a solid business plan, the sky really can be the limit in terms of your eventual success.

No matter what you decide to do with your website, it is going to end up being one of the most powerful tools for your company’s present and future success. The internet can work wonders for you and these days it is pretty much imperative to have a strong website and at least a decent sized following. We have come a long way with the internet providing us with more and more extra abilities every day. Just make sure to keep an eye on the market and for what is hot and in on a monthly basis, and things will start looking up.

A Few Quick Pointers For Building A Successful Business

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There are a couple things that I have learned over the years about being able to successfully start a small business from scratch and build it into something potentially special over the long haul. A few of these things are actually pretty basic when it comes down to it, but the others definitely take some precision and hard work for the business to get off of the ground.

Create A Promotional Message

One of the first important things that I learned is to make sure to use one simple message to promote the business that you are building and trying to sell. It can get quite confusing for a potential consumer if there are a bunch of mixed message being sent out by your business. Just keep it really simple and to the point that you are trying to make and hopefully that message will in time sell itself.

Create An Advertising Strategy

Strategic advertising is probably the most overlooked and unappreciated aspect to any successful small business plan. You need to make sure to set aside about seven to fourteen percent of your gross target for marketing and advertising. Also, make sure that the ads that you are putting out there for the world to see are tasteful and to the point. You do not want people getting the wrong idea about your company or even not knowing exactly what it is that you are trying to sell.

Always Be Available To Your Customers

It is vastly important to be able to be reached by phone or by email at any point in time to answer the questions of your potential customers. There is nothing more frustrating for a consumer than to have an inquiry or problem with a product and to not be able to reach the company in which they seek advice or the ability to troubleshoot the issue. Be easy to contact and you should be golden in the customer service aspect of your small business.

Keep Your Customers Interested

The last little bit of advice I am going to give you is to make sure that you create a little bit of curiosity amongst your potential client base by mixing things up a little bit and throwing a few curve balls their way. Try coming up with new and innovative ways to advertise your products and make it exciting for someone who is in the market to buy whatever you have to sell. Fresh and interesting things will keep your customers interested in your company.

I hope these quick pointers were helpful to you and your future business and I wish you the best of luck in all that you decide to do.

Making People Aware Of Your Business With A Small Budget

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There are quite a few simple and easy ways to get the attention of potential customers of your company with only a small budget to work with. This may sound like a difficult thing to do since the bigger companies have a lot more money and resources to work with, but it is in fact one of the original ways of doing business and works just as well now as it did way back in the day.

One smart thing that you can do is to make up a nice coupon book online or to give out to the local residents through the mail. This coupon book will offer discounts on whatever it is that you are selling and start to get people on your side about your products. Nothing makes people more excited than knowing that they do not have to pay the going rate on something that would normally cost them an arm and a leg.

Another really simple and inexpensive way to get noticed is to get your business phone number listed in the local phone books. This usually does not cost a thing, but make sure to use a land line because cell phones will probably run a little bit more money than you will likely want to spend on that type of advertisement.

Find Digital listings, there are a lot of comapnies and websites that provide listing services for FREE!!! Take the time to get an accurate listing, some even offere customization or updates for free.

You can also try to get your company enlisted at a trade show or some type of job fair scenario. This will get the public to notice you. As we all know, word of mouth marketing is probably the best and cheapest way to do business these days. As long as people are able to bear witness to an actual company and the products or services that they are selling, they will buy into it if it fits their needs.

Even though using a website to promote your company can get a little bit pricey at times, being able to split the cost with another company is a good way for both of you to save a little bit of cash while allowing the public to catch a glimpse of your company. This will also allow you to start building business relationships with other companies and show that you can be counted on to help out if you are needed to.

All of these things are cheap and easy ways to get your company off of the ground. Most people do not have a lot of spare money lying around when they start a new business, so it is best to find creative ways to work with what you have at the moment and build on it as you gain more and more income.

Interlude.fm – Interactive Video

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Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could interact with music videos? If you could decide which of the musicians in the band you would like to follow?  If you could choose which version of the song you’d like to hear?

And if you could do that, where will the road lead in brand recognition and advertising?

Yoni Bloch thought it could be great. The young Israeli musician, who happens to be a computer geek, gathered his computer savvy friends and posed these questions to them.

A year and a half later, Interlude.fm came into being. It was first presented at the Techonomy convention in May 2010, and is now gathering more and more interest.

What Interlude does is allow you to choose your adventure and influence what you see. While watching a music video, you are asked, from time to time, to make a choice who you would like to follow.  When you do, you will see a different version of the video than you’ve seen the first time. The beginning and end always stay the same, and the music continues seamlessly without interruptions.

To understand what it means, let’s assume the video takes place at a party. Like in the demo shown at the convention, you can see what happens at this party from different angels, by choosing to follow different band member each time. At times you are being asked you if want to hear the music in a different style, a cappella as opposed to instrumental, for example.

You make your own version of the video, following band member A, then switching to see what band member B is doing, than to a girl dancing in the middle of the room. You can review your version of the music video, download it to your computer and share it with friends on other social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace or your blog. There could be hundreds of versions of the same song, the same video, constructed by different people, who share it with one another.

What does it do? From publicity, advertising and brand recognition point of view doing all that prolongs the time a person interacts with the product. When videos are concerned, it triples, on average, the viewing time. The song itself is played many times as the viewer chooses a version of the video he likes best. The product is displayed longer and by being able to influence events, a feeling of familiarity is created.

Interlude.fm took it a step further. Another application of the program targets commercials; If you are looking at a car advertisement, for example, which shows a silver car driving down a road between high rises in an urban setting, you can opt to change the color of the car and you can choose to change the setting in which the car is driving. Now a red car is shown driving by the ocean or in a rural area. You can interact with it; change it over and over again with a simple click of the mouse.

Another feature of the program is the ability to instantly compare versions of the same song, and navigate from song to song to see how different artist performed the same song. Again, the move from one video to the other is done seamlessly without losing a beat.

The best part? Interlude.fm technology can be embedded on any corporate or designed website. The customer can provide the video footage and keep complete creative vision of his product, or he can take advantage of the production services of Interlude.fm to create new footage.

Intelude.fm allows users to create unique versions of a video, using pre-recorded video/audio, and share it quickly and easily with their friends. Users can compare versions and decide which one they like best. The end result will always be greater use, greater play and greater interaction with your product.

Instant Preview – A new Google Tool

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Google is moving ahead in full steam. Not only the search results are now displayed while you type your query, and change with each addition of a letter (Google Instant), Google Places displays businesses fist when you type in a place name.
This month Google has released Instant Preview, and you already have it in the result page.
Instant Preview provides a snap shot of the landing page on the result page without having to click on the link. If until now the search results offered a title, a snippet of the text and the URL, now it can give you a visual view of that page as well.
Next to the search result there’s a magnifying glass. Click on that and you will see how the website looks like. Once you clicked on it one time per page, when you hover the cursor over the result the page appears.
As Goggle puts it on their blog: “Instant Previews provides a graphic overview of a search result and highlights the most relevant sections, making finding the right page as quick and easy as flipping through a magazine.”
The technology behind it is amazing. No more 20-30 seconds to upload a picture. When you type a query, Google’s machines match it with an index of the entire web and present you with the results usually in under one tenth of a second. Once you click on the magnifying glass, images of the next results load up in the background without interrupting the speed.
The landing pages have become much more important now. Searchers have no longer a need to click on the site to see the content. E commerce and advertising will have to adjust.

Can You Get Free PR?

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How to make the most of your internet presence and increase your visibility is a subject many small business owners are grappling with. With the enormous speed in which social media is evolving, you probably have this question reverberate in your brain: am I doing all that I can do to advertise my business?

Even if you don’t have a big advertising budget, there are some things you can do to get free – or almost free – PR. But you have to know how to do it.

–          Do your homework – know what is happening in your niche, what makes you different and better. Identify local publications and trade magazines. See which writer writes about your area of business and what is he writing about (personal story, facts, sales?)

–          Build your story. It has to be compelling, short and to the point. It has to entice the writer to look into your new venture.

–          Choose the date carefully. Does your business have something to do with dates? Holidays? Writers are looking for things to write about which are relevant to the date of publication. They are more likely to look into your business if it has something to do with the date of the next issue.

–          There are few site you can go to which will cost relatively very little but will start you up on the road to a PR campaign:

PRWeb is one of them. Their site helps you create a press release and they will send to search engines, news sites, geographic location sites and 5 industry sites. Press releases start at $80 and go up to $360 if you want your release to appear in big newspapers like New York Times or USA today.

1888 Press Release – a similar service to PRWeb but more variety in pricing and more control over the message. They also have editors going over your press release to check for grammar mistakes and appropriate content.

MediaSync. A site that aggregates material according to subject or market and allows you to see who writes about your kind of business. It also lets you contact the writers or bloggers to offer them new information to write about. Their service is free. In the future they will introduce a paid subscription for going deeper in measuring the influence the writer has had.

Handle Your Own PR. A service designed for medium and small businesses, it offers PR tips, media lists and press release writing assistance.

These are but a few initial steps to increase the visibility of your small business, but these steps cost you – in time, not money. It has been said that the most expensive element a small business owner has is his time. If time is an issue, contracting a consulting firm that knows all the ins and outs of online advertising world and social media websites. There is much more that can be done to increase your business visibility.