Publishing an Internet Newsletter

How to create an effective, eye-catching Internet newsletter

Because of their low cost, attractive full-color designs and quick production turnaround time, online Internet and Intranet newsletters have quickly become one of the fastest growing segments of company newsletter publishing.

Whether you’re planning on publishing an Internet newsletter to attract new customers or an Intranet newsletter to keep employees up to date on company happenings, online newsletters can be a very effective tool for your business – if done properly.

Here are some tips to make sure your online newsletter is successful:

By using a multi-column layout, you’ll make your online newsletter more attractive and easier to read. Use a multi-column layout. Lines of text that stretch from one edge of the screen to the other are not only boring to look at, they’re more difficult to read.

Shorter text lines make it easier for readers to keep their place when following text from the end of one line to the start of the next line. That’s why newspapers and magazines, in both their printed and online versions, always break up a page’s text into multiple columns.

Follow the lead of the professionals and do the same with your online newsletter.

In the online newsletters that my company produces, we prefer to use a design that breaks a Web page into two columns – just like this Web page that you are now viewing.

The first column is on the left side and takes about one-third the width of the newsletter. The second column, on the right side of the screen, is wider and takes up the remaining two-thirds of the publication.

The narrower left column is an ideal place to run your newsletter’s table of contents, including links to all your articles. For added impact, you can tint this left column with a background color.

The right column is then used mainly for headlines, photos and articles.

Use graphics, but don’t overdo them. Photos, artwork and other graphics will make your newsletter more eye-catching. However, these graphics are a double-edged sword because the more you use, the longer it’ll take for your pages to load on your readers’ browsers.

If a Web page takes too long to load, viewers will get impatient and move on without reading your pages. Here are some ideas for using graphics effectively:

When deciding whether to run a graphic large or small, go for the smaller size – unless there’s important detail in the graphic that will be lost when it’s reduced to a smaller size.

Minimize the download time of your graphics by limiting the resolution to 72 DPI (dots per inch). Most computer monitors can’t display any higher than 72 DPI, so there is no need to make Web page graphics with a resolution that is any higher. A 300 DPI graphic won’t look any better on a computer monitor – it’ll just have a much greater file size and take much longer to load on a browser.

Instead of over-using graphics, use fancier text elements to dress up your pages. Colored drop caps (the large first letter of an article, like at the beginning of this story), pull quotes (for example, see the gray box with purple lettering farther down in this article) and reverses (the “OUR SERVICES” box in the left column is a sample) can all be done without adding independent graphics to your Web page. These fancier text elements can all be programmed into your Web page without adding significantly to the file size.

Before putting your completed newsletter online, be sure to view it in multiple browsers and monitors. Unfortunately, a Web page will look different depending on the kind of browser used. That’s why it’s a good idea to proof your newsletter in multiple browsers.

Most Internet surfers use either Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Explorer. These browsers can be downloaded free from their company’s respective Web sites, so be sure to get a copy of each. Then, proof your newsletter separately in each browser.

Your Web pages may also appear differently depending on the user’s computer monitor settings (VGA vs. SVGA, 256 color vs. true color, etc.). The current standard is an SVGA monitor operating in true color.

However, if you’re creating an online employee newsletter and you know that many people in your company have the older, smaller VGA monitors that operate in 256-color mode, you better proof your online newsletter with one of those monitors, too. Chances are, the newsletter will look drastically different.

Increase readership by submitting the Web address of each newsletter issue to the major search engines for indexing. If your goal is to use your online newsletter to promote your company’s products and services, be sure to submit each new issue of your publication to the major search engines. These search engines have the potential to send a lot of viewers to your online newsletter.

Send an e-mail to your subscribers to announce each new issue. One drawback of an online newsletter is that readers forget to check for new issues. It’s not like a printed newsletter, which is more visible to readers because they see each new issue when it arrives in their mailbox.

One drawback of an online newsletter is that readers forget to check for new issues.

That’s why it’s important to maintain a database of your subscribers’ e-mail addresses. Then when each new issue is available online, send your subscribers an e-mail telling them the Internet address where they can find the new issue, as well as a brief description of the articles that are featured.

Don’t have any subscribers? You can build a list of subscribers by putting a message in your online newsletter saying, “Don’t miss future issues! Send us your e-mail address and we’ll notify you when each new issue comes out.”

Archive your back issues and add search features to your Web site. Don’t replace the previous issue of your newsletter with the newest version. Instead, make an online archive of your newsletter’s back issues. Your newsletter archive would not only be a great resource for your readers, it would also make your Web site deeper in content. And the more useful content your Web site has, the more traffic that will be sent to your online newsletter from the search engines.

Once you have about a half dozen issues in your archive, make it a searchable archive. Internal search engines allow users to search your Web site internally, for specific words and terms. This makes it easy for your regular readers to search back issues for specific information.

Monitor the readership of your online newsletter with a Web statistics program. If your Webmaster installs a statistics program on your online newsletter’s server, you can get invaluable feedback about your publication and its readers.

For instance, typical Web statistics programs let you see how many people have viewed your newsletter; which Web pages within your newsletter are most popular; how much time the average viewer spends on each page; and which external Web sites and search engines referred viewers to your newsletter (in other words, which Web sites have links to your newsletter).

A good Web statistics program is the next best thing to a readership survey.

Check out out PageFlip technology for making your online newsletters and magazines look amazing

How To Twitter – 8 Steps to Getting Started

1. Get an Account

http://twitter.com/
You’ll need to provide:
• Your Full Name: Use your real name
• Username: Should reflect your brand
• Email: You’ll get notifications here

2. Setup Your Profile

1. Find Friends using your email address (optional)
2. Follow some famous people (optional) Be sure to de-select any of the famous people you don’t want to follow
3. Go to the Settings Tab Account Tab:
a. More Info URL: Add your blog, your webpage, your LinkedIn page, etc
b. One Line Bio: In 160 characters, describe yourself so people you want to connect with can find you
c. Location: If desired, provide your geographical location
d. Protect Your Updates: If you click this box, no one can follow you unless you allow it, and no one can read your tweets unless they are following you. NOT the recommended option.
Picture Tab:
Upload a picture, also known as an Avatar
Design Tab:
Choose a preset theme, or upload your own background picture.

3. Choose how to Tweet

Web Client
Log into twitter, and click the Home Tab.
• Write tweets in the box under “What are you doing?”
• Click the @<username> link to see tweets directed to you
• Click the Direct Messages link to see any private messages

Desktop Client
A list of clients is available on the Twitter website: http://twitter.com/downloads
Desktop clients allow you to watch your tweets as they come in, more like an IM client.
• Tweetdeck allows you to group your followers, or to watch search strings
• Twhirl allows you to use more than one account at a time.

Cell Phone
Twitter can be set up to send and receive SMS messages from your phone.
To set it up:
1. Log into your account from the website
2. Click the Settings Tab
3. Click the Devices Tab
4. Save your Cell Phone Number
Be aware: you’ll be charged for sending & receiving tweets just like you are for texting

4. -Tweeting Cheat Sheet

@<username>: Respond to someone on twitter
d username: Send a private message to someone on twitter
RT @<username>: Retweet someone else’s tweet
#<term>: Add a hashtag to tag it with a search term
140 Characters per tweet
Shorten URLs to save on characters used in your tweets

5. Twitter Jargon

• Avatar: Your twitter profile picture
• Direct message: A private message. Only the sender and receiver can see this message
• Follow: In order to see other the tweets of other people without searching for them, you have to Follow them
• Hashtag: A way to tag individual tweets with a search term. Hashtags start with a #, and are followed by the search term
• Retweet: Forward another user’s tweet
• Tweet: Individual messages sent on twitter. Anyone can see any tweet
• Tweetstream: all of your tweets

6. Know your Brand!

On Twitter, everyone can see what you say.
It is critical to understand this if you are tweeting for your business.
Be cognizant of your brand and your mission, because what you tweet will add or detract from your message.

7. Have a Strategy

Why do you want to be on twitter?
• Connect with clients
• Sell a product
• Connect with thought leaders
• Find a job
• Find job applicants

8. Find Followers

• Fill out your profile
o People will ignore you if you don’t have a profile
• Search
o Use http://search.twitter.com/
o Look for

How to create massive website traffic with a shoestring budget

Cheap web site traffic can produce excellent results – free targeted web site traffic can pull in mammoth amounts of more web site traffic than you may ever need!

There seems to be a real mystery on how to achieve increased web site traffic, even though it is only “a paint by numbers” method. To get really satisfying results with your next web site traffic promotion, follow these steps.

Let me shed some light on this confused yet simple subject.

1. SEO your website correctly

There lots of SEO tools to highlight the weak areas in each web page. Search engines will then better understand your information and increase your website traffic. Patience is required using this method but long term this method requires the least amount of maintenance.

2. PPC – Pay per click. You pay for traffic

This is traffic you pay for. Pay-per-click advertising, banner advertising, co-registrations etc, all fall under this category. Works instantly but can be costly and may not be targeted to your niche market.

3. Borrow It

This is traffic that you get from joint ventures. Shared opt in sites with free giveaways etc. Lots of instant traffic that requires automated follow ups known as auto responders.

4. Pay For Inclusion Search Directories

When you search the internet from Yahoo, the results are provided by a web site other than Yahoo. Search the Yahoo Directory (hundreds of thousands of people do each month) and you’ll see web sites that have paid to be in those results. Each web site owner pays at least $299US per year to be there and may not even be included. This fee is for the application only. If your site is accepted, you will pay at least $299 per year, every year. You will pay more if you want a premium placement for your listing.

Pay Per Click Search Engines

The concept of pay per click search engines is very simple and works well. You buy targeted ad space based on a keyword phrase that is related to your product or service. Your ad is displayed on the search results page after a user searches for your keyword for that ad. Every time a visitor clicks through to your web site from that ad, it costs you from one cent up to $10 or more. You get web site traffic that is interested in your niche, as much as you are willing to pay for.

5. Increased web site traffic generation methods?

SEO – Find the right in demand keywords/key phrases for your topic niche. Give your website quality and relevant content that reflects a variety of keywords and key phrases.

Blog on other peoples forums, especially high PR sites of 5-7. This will get your site indexed hours or days and not months.

Giveaway quality stuff for free also known as loss leaders. People will like it and recommend your free downloads to others via their websites and or email lists.
This becomes viral and becomes a huge traffic generation method.

6. The importance of targeted web site traffic?

Targeted web site traffic is very important, people that visit your site are searching for a specific solution to a problem. If you supply the desired solution, then you have a customer in waiting with their wallet open.

If you are an adsense website, the click through rate will be higher as customers identify possible solutions on your website, even with Adsense.

7. Should I rely only on free web site traffic?

You can if done correctly, Google and Yahoo provide the majority of website traffic. Paid traffic is proportional to your wallet size. Getting lots of website traffic should only be a small part of your strategy. What you do with your visitors is much more important.

Getting large volumes of will increase web site traffic but paying for it may send you broke. To drive traffic to my web site I rely on promoting articles and back links that value my editorial contribution.

Leave paid alone and use it only with a structured strategy that you know that works. Never go in blindly with paid website traffic unless you can afford to lose it all.

8. Which web site traffic promotion is best for me?

That depends on many things. For newbie’s focus on basic SEO, good niche content and Google friendly is a must. It’s free and is consistent, it takes a while to provide steady traffic and it’s free.

Advanced users should consider Google Adwords or similar. Viral marketing works amazingly if you have a great new product that provides a sought after solution.

Reciprocal links are good to have and submitting articles to lots of article sites would have to be on everyone’s list of priorities.

Blog sites such as Google and Yahoo groups, Technorati, Digg and Delicious provide instant free traffic.

9. What can I do with my web site traffic statistics?

Plenty of things! You can establish which pages get viewed the most and which the least. Which keywords/phrases were used to find your website and which search engine brings you how much traffic. Which countries visit your website and days of week that are most popular. Handy to decide which day to use for maintenance downtime when needed.

Referred links are also handy to know, they display the websites that link to your website and provide traffic for you. Web site traffic statistics are a goldmine of information including daily traffic, number of pages view per visitor and duration time spend on your website.

10. How can I drive traffic to my web site?

Make sure you are registered with Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL, DMOZ.org All the other search engines will index your website without your consent.

Back links are a must, blogs can really drive traffic but always short lived. Find permalink blogs with a PR of 4 or greater. If you can blog a comment on a PR 6 website, you will be indexed the same day!

Email lists also work but you need a list and they are time consuming to build and maintain.

11. How to increase targeted web site traffic?

Knowing your niche and the keywords associated is the first step. Once this has been identified, you must write or obtain information articles that relate to your niche keywords. Simply put, ensure your website is packed full of interesting content that readers will value. Also the search keywords entered by searchers within Google, Yahoo, MSN etc. match with your keywords throughout your site.

The search engine spiders note this and accordingly rate your website as relative to search requests. Of course you are competing against others doing the same.

Just do it better! Reciprocal links or one way links are a must. Aim for hundreds of links, eventually as your site matures go for thousands of links. There many tools to help you do this. www.linkmetro.com is one to start with.
Just register and other sites will contact you.

Remember to reciprocate your links ONLY with niche related sites!

12. Should I buy web site traffic?

YES and NO, newbie’s should stay clear of paid traffic. Why? It is easy to fall prey to wolves that promise much and deliver little. There is no reason to buy traffic when first starting out! The exception is that you are a seasoned website owner and you have a proven formula that works for you. Then the risk of buying web site traffic may be justifiable and even be very profitable.

Google Adwords is web site traffic on steroids BUT just like gasoline without respect it can blow up in your face!

13. Is cheap web site traffic worth the effort?

YES, but it requires lots of hard work to get the momentum going for every website you promote. Do not believe the hype of easy or no effort to your first million dollars, it will not happen. Stop dreaming, roll up your sleeves and do the hard yards now for the rewards later.

14. The best way to generate web site traffic?

Without doubt the best way to generate web site traffic is providing quality informative content, Google site map on your site, blogging and or submitting articles to article sites.

Google adwords is extremely powerful at getting massive traffic to any site BUT it can cost you big time too. Adwords should be left to the disciplined only. Otherwise you may get a surprise credit card statement from Google adwords traffic.

This is traffic where you deliberately ‘engineer’ an environment that attracts visitors from Search Engines. SEO, Social networking, Blogging, Feeder Sites etc all fall under this category.

Great ways to use Twitter in your business and personal life

Twitter is a micro blogging platform which allows you to publish short messages of less than 140 characters through different mediums like IM, cellphones and the web.

It is similar to an IRC channel although messages are displayed less rapidly. Some have called it a slower version of internet messengers.

It has a social element as well, as it allows users to befriend and monitor each other’s messages or updates. So what you have here is a publishing tool that can be either public and private.

Twitter gives you a fragmented experience of opinions, events, news, ideas and feedback largely because its structured to accommodate non-contextual usability: You can easily follow thousands of users and listen in and enter into conversations conducted among multiple users at any point. And this is usually the case.

On the other hand, Twitter can be actively used as a tool to push out messages that capitalize on the attention you’re receiving from other users. Yes, I’m talking about self-promotion and marketing. This involves active user engagement.

Twitter and Marketing: A General Overview

There’s been a great deal of articles on how Twitter can be used for marketing purposes and I think most of them can be condensed to the simple aim of tracking and directing attention. Twitter allows you to monitor how influencers think or feel, you can also get into their attention zone via active networking.

For businesses, Twitter is another channel which connects current and potential customers with your product or brand. It allows deeply infiltration into the lifestyles of interested participants, which helps to build brand persistence/loyalty.

In its most obvious form, Twitter can be seen as a traffic generation tool. The placement of links within profiles and conversations can direct visitors to a specific website and is especially powerful if you pitch to early adopters and influencers.

As a lead acquisition tool, it doesn’t always reach the audience you want. Most Twitter users are somewhat web savvy and it is extremely difficult to target a specific subset of the general demographic and determine their level of potential interest.

As there isn’t an option to advertise within Twitter (unlike Facebook), Twitter marketing is a task that involves two-way audience engagement, on the part of the marketer or business owner. In a way, this is a good thing.

The Problem With Twitter

Twitter is not a difficult tool to use so there’s a low barrier of entry; Anyone can pick it up. What really matters is how it impacts your online habits and daily life. For many, Twitter is a distraction, albeit one that is very much welcome.

It saps your attention and pulls your focus away from other tasks. Kathy Sierra goes a step further and talks about the very real fear of being disconnected:

Ironically, services like Twitter are simultaneously leaving some people with a feeling of not being connected, by feeding the fear of not being in the loop. By elevating the importance of being “constantly updated,” it amplifies the feeling of missing something if you’re not checking Twitter (or Twittering) with enough frequency.

The issue here is that effective Twitter usage necessarily involves an investment in time and attention. One needs to be plugged in to a certain extent to reap the benefits that come from using Twitter. Even listening takes an effort.

17 Ways to Use Twitter: My Experiences So Far

I’ve signed up for a Twitter account a long time ago and used it sporadically because it never really did appeal to me. Last week I decided to give it another chance and installed Snitter, a desktop application for Twitter.

I started using it actively and gradually developed an avid interest. I think Twitter is a manageable process that can be adopted for all types of lifestyles, busy or inactive. You’ll just need to integrate it within your normal workflow. It’s addictive but once you understand how to use it, it’ll be a very effective tool indeed.

Having read a great deal of other articles on Twitter, I decided a do a quick summary of all the ways you can use Twitter for both your professional or personal life. Some of these methods go beyond the use of Twitter as a lifestreaming device:

1. Personal Branding. Twitter is a social media platform you can use to build your personal brand. It has the primary benefit of developing a casual persona and establishes you as a social personality that is connected and approachable. As Twitter adoption increases, new users will be drawn towards well established Twitter personas.
2. Get Feedback. Need an alternative perspective on how a website looks or the right course of action to take? Blast out a message asking for advice and you’ll receive replies from other users. This collective intelligence can be used as fodder for articles or projects.
3. Hire People. Need a good logo designer, marketer or programmer? Send out a message asking for recommendations. This is a very quick and easy way to hire freelancers or even companies based on familiar recommendations.
4. Direct traffic. Twitter can be used to get traffic to your websites or the sites of friends. If you ask your friends to tweet about it, the message will spread faster and further as other active users pick it up. There is a viral nature to all types of news, even on a site like Twitter.
5. Read News. Twitter users often link to useful sites or articles and can be a source of scoops and alternative news. You can also subscribe to Twitter feeds for specific websites/conferences, which allows you to receive and view content quickly. This is very useful for active social news participants.
6. Make New Friends. Like any other social network, Twitter has a built-in function for you to befriend and track the messages of other users. This is an easy way for you connect with people outside of your usual circle. Make an effort to add active users you find interesting. A Twitter acquaintance can be developed into a long lasting friendship.
7. Network for benefits. Twitter can be used as a socializing platform for you to interact with other like-minded people, especially those in the same industry. It can be used to establish consistent and deeper relationships for future benefits such as testimonials or peer recommendations.
8. Use it as a ToDo list. Use Twitter to record down what you need to do while you are away from the computer. Mark the tweet as a favorite to file it for referencing. Another alternative is to use an Online task management service that is synced with Twitter. One example is Remember The Milk.
9. Business Management. Twitter can be used as a company intranet that connects employees to one another. Workers can liaise with each other when working on group projects. Particularly useful when certain workers go out often in the field. Updates could be set to private for security reasons.
10. Notify Your Customers. Set up a Twitter feed for the specific purpose of notifying customers when new products come in. Customers can subscribe via mobile or RSS for instant notification. Twitter can also be used to provide mini-updates for one-on-one clients.
11. Take Notes. Twitter provides you with an easy way to record important ideas or concepts you want to explore further. Include links relevant to ideas you want to explore. Note taking can also be done offline via mobile applications.
12. Event Updates. Businesses can use Twitter as a means to inform event participants and latest event happenings/changes. This is a hassle-free way of disseminating information, especially when you don’t have the means to set up a direct mobile link between you and the audience
13. Find Prospects. Twitter can be used as a means to find potential customers or clients online. Do a search for keywords related to your product on Twitter Search and then follow users. Tweet about topics parallel to your product and close prospects away from public channels by using direct messages or offline communications. Discretion and skill is needed in this area.
14. Provide Live coverage. Twitter’s message size limit prevents detailed coverage of events but it can allow you to provide real-time commentary which may help to spark further discussion or interest on the event as other Twitter users spread the message. Very useful for citizen journalism.
15. Time Management and Analysis. Twitter can simply be used to keep a detailed record of what you are doing every daily. This might be boring for others but this type of usage is useful when you want to analyze how you spend and manage your time.
16. Set Up Meetings. Twitter can help you organize impromptu meetups. For example, you can twitter a message while at a cafe, event or art gallery and arrange to meet fellow users at a specific spot. It’s an informal and casual way of arranging a meeting.
17. Acquire Votes. Send a link to your stories you’ve submitted in other social news sites like Digg. Sometimes your followers will vote up the stories because they agree with it. This allows you to acquire more support for your efforts on other social media websites.

I suspect I’ll be writing a little more about Twitter in the future including a roundup and summary of some of the articles I found really useful (there were quite a few).

Hopefully this article has given some ideas on how to use Twitter to promote yourself and your business or website. If you found this article useful, feel free to send it to your Twitter friends. I’ll love to get some feedback.

E-learning Course Development Process

A well defined path to e-learning development

A fast, low iteration methodology to developing e-learning courses
Our course development process is the product of years of learning, changing, and measuring the effect of our decisions. Our process can be thought of in 7 steps:

Preparing for e-learning

When introducing a learning management system into an organization, you should consider that there are two main types of learning: Informal learning and formal learning.

Formal learning is learning that takes place within a teacher-student relationship, such as in a school system. It involves a curriculum and often some type of assessment, is usually undertaken in groups and is delivered at specific times.

Informal learning is learning on the job, having a conversation and gaining knowledge from experienced peers. Informal learning is learning that occurs during our day-to-day interactions with friends, family and colleagues. It has no curriculum and no assessments. It has no beginning or end but is continuous, its’ how we learn our language or customs.

An effective learning management system enables its audience to use both types of learning to ensure users have an effective learning experience.

Creating a ‘Community of Practice’ where users can use a social network to discuss issues and job related tasks as well as experience formal online training is the key to successful e-learning.

Community of Practice

An organization embarking on developing an effective learning management system community of practice will need to consider:

Build your own Community of Practice – Click Here to launch the fully featured demo of our online learning and social networking platform.

Informal Learning

·         How will you encourage users to become a community of learners?

• How do you intend staff to use forums and blogs?
• How will you create this ‘Community of Practice’?
• Is there a designated community or e-learning coordinator who will drive the forum and blog content, ensuring it is relevant to each user community group?
• How would an e-learning coordinator accomplish this?
• What does the e-learning coordinator need to consider? E.g.

o        Are end users familiar with a social network?

o        Who are your e-learning target audience?

o        How will the e-learning coordinator collaborate with the end users and stakeholders to ensure the learning solution will meet with all their requirements?

o        What subject areas are of interest to your audience?

 

Formal Learning

·         Does online training require assessments, online mentoring and performance support, custom curriculum design and or a way of reporting on and tracking users?

·         Can the content of formal online training courses be interesting?

·         What are the objectives of this online course?

·         How can you measure if you achieve them?

·         Can you include graphics/ audio to engage the audience?

·         Have the users been involved in designing/ contributing to this course content?

·         Does the online training match the end users requirements and expectations?

·          Can the course be interactive? Users generally retain more information if interaction is required

·          What is the length of the course? 10-15 minutes is the optimum learning time before users become bored

 

Promoting Your Learning Resources

Once an organization has decided how it will create a ‘Community of Practice’ through a blend of informal and formal learning they will need to determine how they will prepare end users for the implementation of this new learning management solution . There is no point creating a fantastic e-learning tool with content that promotes good learning practices if the users are not aware of the tool.

Determining whether a designated change manager needs to be assigned to this task is essential and even more importantly determining how users will be engaged and notified of the new solution and what it will offer them in terms of a learning experience.

Time spent preparing end users for the new online learning solution, what it offers them and what is expected of them in terms of commitment is essential to ensure the solution is used effectively and positively.

Once the Learning Management System has been implemented it is important an organization considers whether a designated eLearning Coordinator is required. The key responsibilities of this role will be to facilitate the ongoing momentum of the new e-learning solution amongst staff, ensuring the community of learning becomes a business success.

Time given to all these considerations prior to an implementation helps to ensure the implementation of a new Learning Management Solution is a positive organizational change for all staff.

Build your own Community of Practice – Click Here to launch the fully featured demo of our online learning and social networking platform.

FREE CUSTOM PROTOTYPE – We find that the best way to understand the features of this powerful online learning platform is to try it out for yourself.  Get in touch via our ‘contact us’ page or the ‘FREE CONSULTATION’ form in the sidebar and we can discuss setting you up with your own sandbox system.

Social Media Marketing (SMM) and Social Media Optimization (SMO)

Social Media Marketing (SMM) and Social Media Optimization (SMO) are two new phrases that popped up last year to define marketing through social media and social networking sites. There seems to be a lot of confusion about what each of them mean and what exactly they define, which is bound to happen with any new phrase.

SMM is the process of  creating and distributing of content and other messages through the social web by some form of viral marketing. This can be anything from creating compelling content that gets bookmarked and even hits digg’s homepage to spreading a viral video by putting it on YouTube and other social media websites. It’s about the things that are done off-site, for example, participating in online communities where your customers hang out would be an active role that falls under SMM.

SMO plays more towards refining a website (optimizing it) so that it’s existence and content are easily spread through social mediums and online communities by users and visitors of the website. This can include anything done “on-page” such as improving the usability and design of the website so that it becomes more compelling to users, in an effort to help them spread it through social media sites. The most common example of SMO is represented by all the “digg this” and “add to delicious” icons and links that are all over the web today.

The two remind me of the differences between pull vs. push marketing, and I have to be careful what I say here. In a way with SMM you are actually pushing your message out there, but that’s usually where the pushing stops. Once you push that message out there it should not require any more pushing. A true viral marketing campaign is so good that it spreads on it’s own and people actually want to spread it, so the push usually ends with the creation and initial “planting” of the campaign. SMO is all about pulling people in with an “optimized” site and encouraging visitors to spread your content without any effort on your part. I think the clear difference between the two is that SMO refers to on-page modifications (on your website) while SMM refers to activities that take place outside of your website (on other websites). As I see it, Social Media Optimization can be one of the ways to encourage Social Media Marketing activities by users and visitors of your website.

What other people think about these ideas about social media optimization and social media marketing and does my explanation make sense to you, or do we need to go back to the drawing board?

Daily Website SEO Checklist

This is a checklist of daily tasks that should be performed to optimize your website. Not all the steps need to be performed every day, but each step should be performed at least once per week, preferably more.

1. Write an Article, generate 20 versions using a rewriting tool and submit to 20 article directories using a submission tool.

2. Create a new article on your website and send to 5 social bookmarking sites

3. Add comments on social bookmarking sites to existing entries that point to your site

4. Locate 3 blogs in your verticle market and post relevant comments with links to one of your on-site articles. Preferably using the FastBlogFinder tool to locate blogs with and good page rank – very important that you make sur ethat their site creates ‘dofollow’ links to you url , otherwise you won’t score any ‘google-juice’!

5. Write 3 emails to webmasters at appropriate well ranked websites asking for a link exchange

6. Listen to the weekly MarketingGeek podcast from http://www.marketinggeek.tv

7 Ways to Attract Twitter Followers

To date, my methods for developing a follower list, both on my own behalf and on behalf of clients, have been quite simple. I’m well aware that some people will villify me no matter what I say–did I mention Twitterers are touchy?–but the following seems to work:

1 Begin by following just a few people who interests seem to be a great fit for you or your company’s brand or personal focus.

2 Just as you might do when joining an e-mail discussion list, sit and “listen” to the tweets posted by the people you’re following.

3 Comment on what the followers are saying, if that’s appropriate, or just introduce yourself and say what your goals are (people will find it by tweetscan).

4 Make sure you connect to a few friends, not just to have a friendly audience, but also to attract followers from their list of friends. People will also find you through Twitter Friend Adder or similar apps.

5 Use Tweetscan to scan for mentions of your company, name or issues you’re following closely. Then respond, though carefully. Be helpful, and be present, but don’t intrude if possible.

6 Make sure you Twitter ID (with a link to an explanation of Twitter for those who don’t “get it” yet).

7 I haven’t tried this yet, but what about an anouncement on the Web site promising coupons and such to those who subscribe, as well as mentioning that you can solve problems?

Now folks, I’d love to hear how you build follower lists, as I know that what I’ve suggested is pretty elementary. What’s worked for you?

Internet Marketing with Twitter

If you’re researching social media & social networks, chances are good you’ve stumbled across Twitter in recent months. Twitter is an online community of people writing text-based, miniature-scale (max 140 character) blog posts about moments in their lives.

But Twitter isn’t just for individuals. Twitter holds great potential for improved online communication, collaboration and relationship building for business. Early adopters in social media marketing are picking up and running with Twitter, adding it to their client’s overall online media marketing mix.

Twitter offers unique opportunties for the enhancement & expansion of traditional marketing and social media marketing campaigns. We see companies and savvy Internet marketers coming up with new ways to use Twitter to their advantage. A few ways you might consider using Twitter in your online PR and Internet marketing strategies include:

• building relationships with prospective clients
• promoting events
• providing insight and commentary on an event in real time
• promoting special offers or daily specials
• facilitating collaborative experience
• building conversation
• sending press releases
• opening dialogue between promoter and promotion participants
• website traffic generation

Here’s a random sample of companies using Twitter as part of their social media marketing efforts:

• Amazon
• Dell
• Woot
• MTV Music Video Awards
• Mac Rumors
• ESPN
• Carnival Cruise lines
• Intel Software
• CNN
• Delta Airlines
• Eleven Marketing

And here’s a few news sites using Twitter to their advantage:

• CNN
• New York Times
• BBC 

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