10 Questions: Are You On Track to Building an Effective Social Media Marketing Program
Posted on 22. May, 2009 by Dean Whitney in Inbound Marketing, Social Media and has 0 Comments
- Do you have a “Publishing Plan” to create meaningful content and reach your target audience?
- Are you actively listening to and having conversations with people in places they frequent such as blogs and online communities?
- Are your empowering employees and customers to act as “brand evangelists?”
- Do you have a systematic plan for your teams to promote your brand, your content and build reputations on a daily basis?
- Are you establishing a “Co-creation Experience” with your target buyers? An experience where their suggestions and insights shape the future of your offering? Can your customers become members?
- Are you planning “Research Initiatives” that will help your organization learn prior to making major investments in marketing initiatives?
- Is your strategy “Agile”, with regular checkpoints to analyze results and trending, to look at both qualitative and quantitative data, adjust your tactics and fine-tune your initiatives?
- Are you able to derive lead intelligence from your website? Can you analyze how specific events, content, activities affect traffic and lead conversion? When a website visitor converts to a lead can you tell what site they came from, which pages they read and see what they are interested in?
- Do you have a systematic program for keyword discovery and acquisitions? Are you sharing target keywords with your team so they can use them in when creating content (blogs, comments, twitter updates etc.)?
- Are you willing to “Lose Control” of the conversation?
ROI on User Experience (UX) Design
Posted on 25. Mar, 2009 by Dean Whitney in User Experience, analytics and has 0 Comments
I was on a start-up panel and the question asked “how do determine if the user experience design is successful? Many of the answers suggested; does the design elevate the brand? does it improve the user experience? easier for users to complete tasks? etc. These are great things that in the past certainly made the client stakeholders and agency or designers feel good; but does it really tell you if it was a good investment? User experience design is part of the overall solution – like a wheel on a car cannot be successful on its own; what purpose could it have?
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Social Media Marketing (SMM)
Posted on 06. Jan, 2009 by Dean Whitney in Social Media, Web 2.0 Technology and has 0 Comments
“Create fans, not customers,” describes the goal of social media marketing.
Every company has a personality that consumers can identify and describe. For that reason, marketing is not so much about getting people to make purchases as it is about getting people to like and trust you.
New media marketing comes in many varieties: online banner advertising, viral marketing, social networking, interactive Websites, blogs, podcasts … the list goes on. But no matter the tactic, the purpose is the same–turning potential customers into enthusiastic fans.
The use of social media websites for marketing is growing fast. Social media marketing is a method of promoting your brand (be it yourself, a product, a service, or company) by strategically making your presence known across various social media networks (such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Myspace, etc.) This may seem overly elementary but “Making yourself known” is the kicker because each category of social media has a different, sometimes intricate method for effective promotion.
Social Networking Kit
Posted on 09. Dec, 2008 by Dean Whitney in Social Media and has 0 Comments
On my way to Albuquerque NM tomorrow to give a talk on Web 2.0 and Social Media at the Opportunity Finance Network Conference. I will be talking to beginners and marketing folks looking to leverage new digital strategies. I use this kit to do some speed networking to demonstrate how people are much more influenced by social media (tags, comments, user generated content, ratings) and the creation of this content is becoming second nature.
The kit was inspired inspired by Jeff Pulver at the Social Media Breakfast last summer. I added the “speed networking component” and made the fancy little kits.
Semantic Web with Eric Neumann
Posted on 03. Dec, 2008 by Dean Whitney in Semantic Web and has 0 Comments
Here is semantic web evangelist Eric Neumann discussing technical data strategies with a group at the GGI office in Boston. Using RDF and semantic web tools we can build much more dynamic and scalable solutions for data analysis, reporting tools and applications. The benefit is that RDF can reference existing data sources and allow us to use the date extensively without changing the source. The potential benefit in terms of reduced time to build the apps and flexibility to change and modify are astounding.
- The team spent the afternoon with semantic web evangelist Eric Neumann
Get {insert widget title} on your website
Posted on 22. Nov, 2008 by Dean Whitney in Advertising, Web 2.0 Technology and has 0 Comments
I’ve discussed widget often with clients and speaking at events. Eventually everything will be a widget. Just like you have appliances in your house. You don’t go somwhere to ask them to toast your bread – you have a toaster. Today you wouldn’t build a mapping system, you’d use one that is available.
The key to creating an effective widget is making sure it is 1. useful and 2. frictionless.
Yahoo! Buzz has a good example. I may want to add Buzz content to my sidebar here on the blog. This blog is new but I hope it will occupy some lively chatter soon so the current Yahoo! Buzz top articles could be of use. We have satisfied the first objective. (more…)
The Big Game
Posted on 21. Nov, 2008 by Dean Whitney in Uncategorized and has 0 Comments
2008 MITX Award Video by GGI
The Big Game at GGI – MITX Awards Video
Written by Dean Whitney
Directed and Edited by George Wisnowsk
Featuring the GGI all-stars!!
-Susie D’Entremont, Jen Norris, Ally Levine, Matt Kayan, Ilya Bruklich, Wendy Mitchell, John Abbott,
and guest starring Marat Ryndin as Brad.
Special Thanks to iMedia, Paul Ortolano for the video shoot.
GGI Night Out at the MITX Awards
Posted on 21. Nov, 2008 by Dean Whitney in Uncategorized and has 0 Comments
We purchased a table for the MITX Awards. Joined by some execs from our Philly office, clients and colleagues – we saw some of the best industry work, lots of idea inspiring concepts and enjoyed each others company without the day-to-day office grind in the background. The MITX awards can become an annual tradition for interactive shops. After the show we went for dinner, and a couple of us even hit the after party. I learned a few things about my office, the company and the people I work with. Time well spent. (more…)
DEMOfall08 – Must attend conference
Posted on 15. Sep, 2008 by Dean Whitney in Uncategorized and has 0 Comments
DEMO has become one of my ‘must attend’ conferences. In fact I opted to attend DEMOfall08 over Techcrunch50 and the Web 2.0 Summit in NYC. Here are a few reasons I attend this conference:
- See the presentations: The technologies and solutions provide insight on trends and innovation that add invaluable perspective for me that I can use for consulting and shaping our offerings. I’ve suggested to many vendors and start-ups that they watch the DEMO presentation videos and develop the same presentation format. At DEMO each presentation is 6 minutes and PowerPoint is not allowed.
- Identify partners: For brands it doesn’t make sense to build most of the engagement technology that applies to their campaigns and business. Leveraging ‘off the shelf’ solutions and SAS components lowers risk and reduces time to market. In most cases provide greater quality and functionality than could ever be achieved in a reasonable amount of time and investment.
- Discuss business: Its a great opportunity to discuss business with like minded entrepreneurs. Regardless of what kind of product or service we are providing we all face similar challenges. Staffing, innovation, leadership, outsourcing, funding etc., a few ideas can go a long way. DEMO attracts very experienced and qualified people that have been around the block a few times.
There were too many great solutions to discuss in this article; I will go into more detail on some in the near future. If you are a die-hard technologist, investor, entrepenuer or media/PR person I suggest you register for DEMO09 – I’ll see you there.
Photos
Angelsoft 3.0 – Web 2.0 matchmaker for angels and ideas
Posted on 02. Sep, 2008 by Dean Whitney in Social Media, Web 2.0 Technology and has 0 Comments
Angelsoft announced today their new release of their angel investor marketplace. I’ve heard the complaint that there was the application/quality ration was far too low on Angelsoft so they have built in some great crowdsourcing tools that allows members to rate both applications and portfolios. They have also reduced the number of applications, or how many angels an entrepreneur can submit an idea to. They have also included a Google mashup showing deals by location and they have a comprehensive listing of angel investors that you can sort and search through – that alone is a great resource. Unlike many Web 2.0 sites; its not free but if you have a great idea and have done the leg work its certainly worth the $250 to sign-up.
Angelsoft 3.0 Introduction Video from Angelsoft on Vimeo.
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