Blog

Still wondering about how social media affects your business? Most firms still are. In fact, I've begun referring to this social media space as the new "wild west" within the internet marketing world in which we live. There's a lot going on and it's hard to control. In fact, you can't control it - how can you control conversations people are having with one another - you just can't. So companies have to begin at least monitoring what people are saying about them online. More progressive companies have actually begun having conversations about their brands through social media. But that’s only the beginning. A recent survey by eMarketer showed that more than 90% of marketers believe social media is an effective branding strategy.

Social Media news site Mashable.com (of which I am a fan) made a post on Wednesday on Bing's surge in internet popularity. After only one month, Bing is now the 13th most visited site on the internet.

I recently stumbled across what had to be the most deliciously evil culinary concoction I've ever laid eyes on. Behold, the BACON EXPLOSION So what is this thing? It's a sausage roll with bacon inside rolled up yet again with a latice of more bacon. Smoked for 2.5 hours, doused and smothered in BBQ rub and sauce and served to your coronary delight. Ok, so now you're asking, "Chris, I know you're smart and good looking, but what does this have to do with social media?" Everything! Here's the backstory: The bacon explosion was created in Jason Day’s kitchen with the help of Aaron Chronister, who anchor a barbecue team called Burnt Finger BBQ. Jason and Aaron were looking for ways to get more traffic exposed to their site BBQAddicts.com. More traffic would mean more advertising revenue, which they needed to help fund their expensive BBQ'ing hobby. They decided to do something over the top - something people would get interested in and want to share. Thus was born the Bacon Explosion. Let's pause here for a second and look at two very important words: share and expose. Jason and Aaron knew if they could come up with a wild enough idea (related to their site), other people would want to share the idea in turn exposing more and more people to their site. Social media and networks accomplish this better than any platform ever has. So what happened next? Once Jason and Aaron posted the recipe on their website, they shared it with their network (Facebook and Twitter), who then shared it with THEIR friends who shared it with their friends. All the while, their site was getting submitted and hitting the front pages of Digg and StumbleUpon - some of the internets most popular social bookmarking sites. Now it was out of control. The story was picked up by Men's Journal, the New York Times, Good Morning America, Fox & Friends, etc. At last count their site had 13,000 inbound links, just under 3x the calorie count of the bacon explosion itself! Are you still wondering how they monetized this beyond simple ad revenue? Take a look at the picture above again. Behind the Bacon Explosion is, you guessed it, their signature BBQ sauce and BBQ rub - both of which are listed on the original recipe, were seen by hundreds of thousands of people in just a few months, and are available to buy through their site. This is just another of the thousands of examples of how new media have changed, and greatly accelerated, the path to popularity and business success. You have to be remarkable, but the opportunity is there and it is huge.

I read an article recently that stated 60% of US Fortune 500 companies will start an online social media campaign this year and half of them will fail at it. If these "deep pockets" can't figure it out, what about the thousands of small and medium sized businesses out there battling to develop an effective internet marketing program? We have discussions with our clients all the time about how to capitalize on this social media explosion, and we advise them to think hard about their niche.

If you feel like you are getting old and out of touch with all these new Web gadgets and thingamajigs ... well join the club. It gets over whelming sometimes how quickly technology changes. One minute you are using Yahoo to search the "Internet" for "stuff", the next you are being asked why you don't have a Twitter account. It just seems like so much of this technology stuff ... the Web, Twitters, Facebooking ... is all just a flash in the pan, and that ultimately the good old methods of grabbing clients through word of mouth will line your small business wallet with green again. Unfortunately, it is a fact that NOT keeping up with technology in todays E-world could ultimately, if not end, critically affective your "Bricks-n-Mortar" business.

Most people know that blogs are a great way to help users keep informed about topics of interest, and at the same time drive qualified traffic to the website. For this reason, search engines love blogs. Blogs with new material posted on a frequent basis that is relevant to the website will encourage search engine spiders to index the parent website more frequently. For many site owners, however, adding a blog can be a daunting prospect, particularly if their website is hosted with a provider with restrictive policies regarding new features.

One of the brightest minds on new media, Clay Shirky, described social networks as having "the power to organize without organizations." So what does that mean? Organize what exactly? Organize groups, common interests, a cause, or a community without requiring a formal institution or organization.