Internet Marketing Toronto - Ignite!

Promote Your Blog To Receive Maximum Exposure!

Maximize your blogs exposure to get the best results for your efforts!

WordPress by default is not configured to be Search Engine Optimized. More importantly it does not automatically publish your blog feed to the dozens of blog directories on the Internet. So, once you’ve configured your blog - we’ll be posting our configurations some time soon, you need to submit your “FeedBurner” feed to the following directories:

1. 2RSS.com
2. BlogBunch
3. Blogdigger
4. BlogPulse
5. BlogStreet
6. DayTimenews
7. Feed24
8. Feedbase
9. FeedBomb
10. FeedBoy
11. Feed-Directory
12. Feeddirectory.us
13. FeedFury
14. FeedMap
15. FeedNuts
16. FeedPlex
17. Feeds2read.net
18. FeedSee
19. FeedsFarm
20. Findory
21. FindRSS
22. Golden RSS Feed
23. Jordo Media
24. MillionRSS
25. Morenews.be
26. News On Feeds
27. nfeeds
28. Octora
29. Page2go2.com
30. PLAZOO
31. Postami.com
32. PressRadar
33. Purerss.com
34. Read A Blog
35. RSS MAD
36. RSS Network
37. RSSbuffet Feed Directory
38. RSSMicro
39. RSSMotron
40. SciencePORT
41. Search4RSS
42. Small Business Blog Directory
43. SolarWarp.Net
44. StrategicBoard
45. WeBlogALot

By submitting your FeedBurner feed to these blog directories you’ll have a far greater chance of building a loyal group of readers!

19 Social Media / Networking Sites For The Boomer Generation

During some recent research into the boomer market we came across a list of really interesting social media sites specifically for the boomer age group.

Believe it or not the boomer age group is moving on line fast! More importantly, as a demographic they have a significant amount of disposable income. So if you’re looking to target this demographic we highly recommend you look into the following social networking sites:

1. eons
2. BOOMj
3. reZOOM
4. Boomer Towne
5. Boomer Girl
6. eldr
7. Redwood Age
8. BoomSpeak!
9. eGenerations
10. Boomer Time
11. Growing Bolder
12. Boomer Living
13. TeeBeeDee
14. Life Two
15. My Boomer Place
16. My Primetime
17. Second Prime Time
18. Maple and Leek (UK)
19. GrownUps (NZ)

Here is a stat which may catch your attention. Adults 50 and older own 65% of the aggregate net worth of all US households. If you’re not thinking about marketing to this demographic, perhaps you should consider it!

Special thanks to the thesavvyboomer for adding these to the list:

1. http://www2.saga.co.uk/sagazone/
2. http://www.wanobe.com/
3. http://www.kiwiboomers.com/

For some additional industry insight, checkout the savvy boomer at: http://www.thesavvyboomer.com/the_savvy_boomer/social_networking/index.html

RSS - How It Helps Search Engine Optimization

Really Simple Syndication (AKA RSS) is powering the information we consume on-line, and it’s tremendously powerful for Search Engine Optimization.

Here is the definition from Wikipedia:

RSS is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines or podcasts. An RSS document, which is called a “feed,” “web feed,” or “channel,” contains either a summary of content from an associated web site or the full text. RSS makes it possible for people to keep up with their favorite web sites in an automated manner that’s easier than checking them manually.

So why is RSS so powerful and how does it impact search engine optimization? RSS as a format in and of itself is not that helpful - but when combined with a Blog, Newsletter, Forum, Podcast or Social Media site suddenly becomes the work horse behind it all.

The true power of RSS lies in the ability for users to aggregate content they find interesting into their favorite Feed Reader (AKA Aggregator) and read it all from there. What makes this so enticing is that users no longer have to visit all of their favorite sites just to see what’s new - they simply checkout their Feed Reader. If they see something of interest they can click on the link to to take them directly to the site which originated the content and continue reading and leave comments behind. By creating compelling content with eye catching headlines, you’ll be able to draw in more traffic to your site than you otherwise thought possible.

We use Google Reader as it’s free, web based and packed full of features. One of the most useful features is the ability to share items in an RSS Feed - which we then have up on our website. So from an SEO perspective - those users who produced content worthy of me sharing get links back to their site from ours. In addition, I am more likely to want to write about them on our blog creating an even better contextually relevant link back to their site. Did I also mention it’s fast? RSS Feeds update instantly - so you’ll have the feshest content at your finger tips.

We covered this in an earlier posting about staying in touch with your industry - but it’s possible to produce your own custom RSS feeds of content from aggregator sites like Bloglines, or Forum aggregators. You can then place these custom RSS feeds into your Feed Reader. One word of caution in doing this though is that you may start to see some duplicate content creep in as the content is being syndicated through more than one source. However, it’s well worth it.

By leveraging the timely power and convenience of RSS you can make it really simple for people to consume and interact with your content. Making it easy for them to read, comment on and promote at no additional effort on your part beyond writing something interesting.

Finally - if you’re on a site and you’re looking for their RSS feed, there are two ways to find it. Do a full text search on the page for RSS, or look for this icon, or a derivative of it.

CMA Conference - Day 2 Mark Hurst, Creative Good

How can I take control of e-mail, to-do’s, and the media diet?

Although this presentation was a little off topic, it was quite informative. In fact, Mark provided a tool I’d been trying to find for months - what he calls BitLevers. Here is what Mark had to say, much of which is contained in his new book Bit Literacy.

All employees should have some basic skills mastered in order for them to be productive. These skills include:

• Managing E-mail
• T0-Do Lists
• Media Diet (consuming less content)
• Managing Photos
• Creating Content
• Naming Files
• Storing Files

In fact, Mark has applicants do a typing test to ensure they can touch type fast enough to remain productive in his company. Mark showed us how to master our in-boxes. Here are five types of email that we receive - and what you should do with them.

1. Spam [Delete It]
2. Personal [Read and File or Delete]
3. FYI’s [Read and File or Delete]
4. Small To-Do’s [Take care of them right away - anything that takes less then five minutes]
5. Big To-Do’s [Defer to later by creating a to do in your e-mail application, or scheduling time in your calendar]

He says the biggest issue most of us have with our inboxes is not deferring most email to a To-Do or calendar entry, and we should get in the habit of clearing out our in-boxes on a daily basis. Once it’s clear it’s time to tackle your To-Do list for the day. You’ll sleep better when you’re done.

The final bit of advice he gave was to use BitLevers. I call them speed codes. These applications run PC and Mac and allows you to configure speed codes of text so for example - TYVM would automatically conver to Thank You Very Much automatically. I’ve installed a similar tool on our WordPress blog called Templatedia which you can use to configure speed-codes for any amount of HTML. Example {{ckphoto}} when published will automatically insert all of the HTML associated with adding my photo to the beginning of a blog post and the hyper-link that takes you to my profile page. Brilliant!

Unfortunately I can’t find one for the PC. TypeIt4Me and Typinator are both for the Mac. Anyone know of a PC based version?

Hopefully this information will help you too!

CMA Conference - Day 2 Simon Assaad, Co-CEO Heavy.com

Branded Entertainment in the Digital World. Simon Assaad is Co-CEO of Heavy.com - a growing video sharing and video production site.

Two of the core rules they have regarding video are that just because it was expensive does not make it funny, and that a video should only as long as it’s funny. Humor and entertainment are the two key ingredients to producing great video that people will share with their friends.

Major brands today engage Heavy to have their user base produce video for them which they then review and distribute on the website. Virgin Mobile did this with their “Behind the Music That Sucks“, Burger King with their “You’ve Been Served by The King” video.

The bottom line is that you need to produce entertaining video that connects with your user base.

CMA Conference - Day 2 Rick Murray, Me2Revolution, Edelman

Adapting to survive in the conversation economy.

You can pay for the experience or you can earn it. Corporate America is back from the tough times of business scandals.

The average informed person in the US consumes seven sources of media each day.

Media that they are consuming is different today. The BBC was the first to open up with their content. The New York Times finally made their content available for free just this month.

Edelman polled users asking who was the most trusted spokesperson, and the overwhelming response this years was “A Person Like You” - 51%.

We are using the opinions of people we trust to help us validate our perspectives and make decisions. This reinfornces why it’s important to be authentic in the future of conversations. You’re brand can be terribly damaged when you’re not authentic.

Authenticity, honesty and transparency are most important.

Trust in business is coming back, trust in government is not. Its a recognition that government cannot solve our problems.

The Pyramid of Influence is giving way to the Sphere of Infuence Network where users are spreading the word of your brand amongst their friends in their networks.

For business it is really scary to allow their customers to control their brand in a social network. However, it’s happening and business needs to either participate honestly and try to guide or influence vs. doing nothing and letting what happens, happens.

• PR is Public Relations
• Hype and Spin are out
• Google never forgets

The New Role for PR

• Convergence around big ideas

  Companies that actually have money can make a difference. Government does not have the money to do it. Business has the money to fix global warming. It’s a simple shift in principles. GE is doing it. WalMart consumes 5% of the worlds packaging passes through WalMart. WalMart is forcing suppliers to make their products more efficiently.

  Integrating content across channels

  Thinking about social concerns.

• Listening to new voices

  Consumer feedbcak - Hal03. When MS launches a major game like Halo3 they are talking to consumers a year in advance. They want their input to help create the next game. Get them engaged early and often. $150 million in sales before any advertising of the game really started - because of the involvement of the fans.
  Edelman wants to hear from the employees about what their honestly think about the products.

  Engaging Local Customers. They are the media you want to reach if you engage them early and often. You’re not telling them what to say, just giving them the information they want.

• Public Advocacy

  Creating credible sources of information. Outreach to bloggers, creating mini sites about specific topics. Giving those that want to engage with you a venue to do so.

  Evolving role of the CEO. Should the CEO blog? Not necessarily. Only those that are passionate about something should do it.

Changing rules

• We haev to be open and honest, and not script what people say. It has to be totally authentic.
• Dialog vs. Messaging
• Honesty, integrity, authenticity
• Urgency, Immediacy
• Depth of content
• realtime updating
• Journalistic level of accuracy
• Demonstrable ROI

PR is the “Engine of Interactivity”.

The future PR Team? They are master integrator, A stategist, channel agnostic, generalist.

• Data Analysis
• Brand Planners
• Media Strategists
• Community Managers

Final comments - Be It! Don’t Buy It! Do not try and buy the conversation.

Questions and Answers

Q: Where is the media in all of this?

A: Media remains very important as partners. There are citizen journalists which need to be engaged now more than ever in addition to traditional media. Media themselves are changing as well to accomodate these changing times.

Q: GM Fastlane and WalMart Edelman is doing is great. Share some of the insights you had internally, and what steps you took public facing to clear the path.

A: Trained all of the 3000 employees on the new rules. Staff can answer employee questions all day long 24 hours a day with a global hotline. It’s also part of their new employee orientation program. Don’t want them to be afraid to participate, just want them to know how to do it right.

Q: Will people become overwheled by the advertising on social media sites and move?

A: No one has the answer to that question, other than to say that  early adopters are always looking for next big thing to use. Those people will always be switching platforms. However, the rest of us eventually form the core users of the older platforms.

CMA Conference - Day 2 Mike Murphy, Facebook

Mike Murhpy from Facebook kicks off day 2 of the CMA Conference. Will the rest of the day be as good as day 1? Given the lineup I certainly expect it to be.

A quick poll Mike did on Facebook prior the conference of Torontonians shows that the 18-24 year olds prefer referrals from friends as a means of advertising. This shows a tremendous opportunity that social media platforms have as an advertising platform.

Creating compelling content is something that will make this work. One key component of making advertising on social media networks successful is making the content appealing enough to want to share, without making the advertising message the core factor of the piece - it should be secondary to the “entertainment” factor.

What makes Facebook unique and interesting?

• Were known as a social network, but believe they are different. Facebook is not meant to meet new people, but to interact with existing friends.
• Users must authenticate into a network on Facebook - whether it’s a college or corporate network by providing a .edu or corporate email address.
• Privacy settings allows you to control how much of your information can be shared with non friends.
• Facebook is 57000 networks and the users only have access to a small portion of the entire user-base because it’s about their friends and not everyone thats on the system.
• Well over 50 Million users, adding over 200, 000 users per day.
• Over 50% of users visit the site every day.
• Experiencing dramatic growth in Canada and other countries including South Africa, Egypt, India and Australia.
• Each user added to Facebook adds additional value to all users on the system because each user related to the new one has a better overall experience and this trickles down through the relationships.

Facebook users - their demographic are very willing to answer questions and interact with marketers.

The decision to allow 3rd party developers create Facebook applications was tough but smart decision. As a result the user experience improved at a rate far greater than if they attempted to develop applications themselves.

• Facebook has more Photo Sharing page views than other photo sharing sites
• Facebook delivers more Events invitations in a month than evites does in a single year.

Millions of users on Facebook mention brand names in their profiles. These data sets can be mined and used by marketers to develop applications and leverage the network for advertising activities.

Facebook groups are another mechanism for connecting with brand advocates - very loyal brand advocates.

The New ROI - Return on Involvement.

• Connect with people who identify with your brand
• Give a reason to share
• Watch your message spread
• Get new consumer insights

Questions and Answers

Q: What is facebook doing to prevent 3rd party applications from annoying the user experience?

A: Users vote by controlling the realestate on their profiles -so the system is naturally self controlled.

Q: Is there a way marketers can promote the use of applications?

A: Because Facebook is a viral site the organic marketing that happens in news feed is what creates the most growth for applications. 10% of the applications get most of the traffic. Mike’s group is responsible to ignite the viral component of an application.

Q: What is Facebook doing to improve the user experience for companies developing Facebook applications?

A: Facebook is constantly working with the developer network to answer their questions and concerns and improve the development tools and infrastructure. There are many VC firms funding developers who purely develop Facebook applications, so investors in these companies should not be concerned.

“Marketers need to be a part of the experience.”
                                            - Mike Murphy

CMA Conference - RBC’s Innovation Program, DRM Free Music & Getting Into Social Media

Dr. Anita Sands led an outstanding presentation on the role of Innovation within The Royal Bank, it’s impact on the bottom line as well as the role of Internet Marketing and Social Media.

The afternoon sessions proved to be as good as and better than the morning sessions. Dr. Anita Sands is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University and is now currently the Head of Innovation and Process Design at RBC. Her presentation was outstanding and clearly demonstrates the role of innovation in todays new paradigm of the creative economy. If you like what she had to say about innovation - you need to checkout the Killer Innovations podcast for a weekly dose of creativity and innovation training.

Brent Muhle of Nettwerk Music and Amber MacArthur gave a great discussion and interview regarding the state of the music industry right now. Nettwerk Music for example abhors DRM and embraces social media as a marketing platform for their bands. One particularly interesting statement Brent made was that when they allowed a photo slide show site use of their bands tracks for free - that track out sold other tracks on the album 4-1! It just proves that you don’t need DRM and that sharing music can improve sales overall!

Unfortunately I was not able to attend the panel discussion “Pioneers Perspectives - Reflections on a Decade of Digital Marketing”. If any of you reading attended please comment on this session and let us know how it went.

The final session I attended today was the round table on Online Communities and Social Media. As a round table it was close and intimate. What I came away with is that business from different industries, both small and very large are all interested and wanting to participate in social media but don’t know how to begin. More importantly their reluctant to try too hard for fear of making a mistake and creating a permanent scar on the brand online which they can’t possibly get rid of if they tried.

Our advice to the round table was to definitely get started. Doing nothing is worse than making a mistake! We also suggested:

• Take it slow, do the research and understand what you want to try and then ease into it. If possible find a friend or colleague who is already doing it and ask their advice.My contact info is available to all - and would gladly share all of my insights and experience with anyone who wants to benefit from it. - just ask!
• If you’re starting a blog but are afraid of the comments that might come - turn comments off until you get comfortable posting on a regular basis. Then when you’re ready turn the comments on!
• Measure your results - use analytics (Google is free but you can use others) to easily gauge which of your content writing efforts are generating the most interest and then repeat what you did.
• Track online conversations on the easy and free side or the expensive. Forums, blogs and man social communities are syndicating their content via RSS. You can easily grab their feeds add them to Google Reader and filter them for the topic your interested in such as your brand or product name. You are then only a few clicks away from participating in a conversation you never would have known was occuring. On the expensive side there is BuzzLogic which takes this a step further by helping you understand who is an advocate of your topic because they speak of it frequently and deeply. You can then use this information to target them specifically to help promote your business online.
• Leverage the availability of free software such as WordPress and Pligg to produce your social communities without investing too much money.

There were many more tips we suggested but unfortunately we ran out of time! We’re looking forward to tomorrows line up of speakers and we’ll be posting about them too.

CMA Conference - Quick Codes and First Impressions

First impressions of day one at the CMA Conference.

It’s 10:23 am and we just finished up the early morning sessions. The conference content is proving to be very interesting. I’ll get to that in a moment. First, the environment. The Guvernment is a nice club. I’ve been here many times before, and it’s quite nice a venue for an event like this. My one complaint - it’s a bit chilly and the spot lights are burning through my monitor.  Aside from that it’s great - including ample table room and WiFi.

Moving along - lets talk information. One of the most interesting things that came out this morning is the rage over Quick Codes in Asia. I’ve never heard of it before, but now I know. A quick code is a unique black white image which is placed with out door advertising. A user can take a picture of a specific quick code, SMS it to the QC service and a coupon is returned, and the user can use the coupon on the spot. A perfect example is for Coke - the QuickCode can be held up on screen to a camera in a Coke Machine and the user receives their beverage plus a premium gift, coupon or other incentive.

Quick Codes are not in North America yet, but the advertising agencies and marketers are expecting them to arrive in the next few years.

Other interesting facts coming out today - which most of you won’t be surprised over is the fact that SEM is growing this year over last year according to IPSOS Reid. Specifically:

• Email Marketing is up, no surprise - our spam folders confirm this.
• Social Marketing and Interactive Marketing such as leverage groups within Facebook and other socia sites, and video shared through services such as YouTube is more popular this year over last. it’s not pervasive though.
• Blogging has doubled over last year, but many are still not doing it
• Viral Marketing growing but not pervasive as it’s difficult to know what will or will not go viral
• Social Networking itself saw no usage at all.
• Mobile Marketing awareness up but usage not changed- likely because it’s not available in Canada yet
• Interactive Games - Flash still remain a popular in usage.

The number one factor cited by Agencies and Marketers which would convince them to spend more of their budgets in Digital Media is the introducing of metrics. Measuring the effectiveness of their efforts and calculating ROI is the answer. An interesting area to consider moving forward.

We’re getting settled back for the next session now, so stay tuned for another post when I get a chance.

Spark Is Attending the PubCon Conference in Las Vegas

Yes, it’s true! We’re heading down to Las Vegas in the first week of December for the PubCon mega conference.

This years conference is expected to be an outstanding event with keynote speakers such as Matt Cutts (Google), Craig Newmark (Craigslist), Guy Kawasaki (Garage Technology Ventures), John Batelle (Federated Media Publishing), Danny Sullivan (Founder and Editor of Search Engine Watch and now Search Engine Land) - and many, many more.

Sessions for this years conference include topics such as:

• Social Media
• Linking & WebmasterWorld
• SEO: Organic Search
• SEM: Search Marketing
• Advertising Track
• Domains & Domaining
• Web Hosting
• The Webmaster World
• New Marketing Tech
• Video and Multimedia

With multiple sessions occurring in each topic area we’ll be hard pressed to cover it all with two people! This years PubCon is shaping up to be an outstanding event given the topics to be covered, and the outstanding line up of speakers and keynotes. Rest assured, that coming out of this conference will be a wealth of new information, strategies and tactics which we’ll be apply to your Internet Marketing Services.

If anyone else is going to the conference, please post a comment here. We’d love to meet up with you face to face!