Thursday, December 30, 2010

Use Interior Design to Build a Better Website – Click here http://bit.ly/gbAuKK for full article.

Written by : Brady Curtright

In business, the customer is always right. This is especially true if they pass right by or turn away from your website. They're saying something is wrong with the design or function of your site.

Good design is the first important impression for your customers, and if not taken seriously, bad design can have a negative impact on your business. Your website needs to be attractive and spark interest. After all, you are an expert in your field right? Your design should reflect that expertise. Applying a few basic principles from the world of interior design will give you a level up on the competition, as explained by Katie Thompson in Smashing Magazine.

With an interest in interior and graphic design, and more than 11 years experience in the hospitality industry, I have come to understand the critical importance of the physical interaction between environment and users.

Good design keeps visitors on your website longer, and more importantly, keeps them coming back. Whether it's color, size, shape or texture, these rules are important for Web design. You want your customers to be engaged and interact with you, your site and your business. Your site also must create a welcoming sense of comfort. If it's not comfortable, they won't stay long. A well-thought-out design could be the difference between new business and going out of business

Interested in working with NewMediaPlus? Click here.

Click here http://bit.ly/gbAuKK for full article.

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Analyzying Your Website Data is Vital - Click here http://bit.ly/b7gHBv for full article.

Written by : Nina Khoury

A successful online strategy consists of many parts; monitoring and analyzing the most neglected source of information is certainly one of the most important ones.

Your server log files and data collected by any analytics and/or tracking tools are the keys to unlocking your website's performance secrets.

Proper log file analysis is the single, most important resource a website owner has to determine success and failure, to visualize metrics and to detect potential defects in usability and efficiency. When analyzed and interpreted correctly, these logs will provide you with vital information about every little detail and step a visitor takes on your site.

Analyzing your visitors' behavior is crucial when trying to identify performance and conversion issues: Are they staying or are they leaving immediately? Is there a potential disconnect between their expectations and your site’s content?

Do visitors complete the intended paths or are they straying or abandoning the process?

Where do they come from? How did they find you? Did the keywords they entered in a search engine query box relate to your content? Did they find what they were looking for?

To answer these and many more questions every site owner should implement a visitor tracking strategy and monitor and analyze the results.

Interested in working with NewMediaPlus? Click here.

Click here  http://bit.ly/b7gHBv for full article.

Tips on Running a Successful Social Media Campaign – Click here http://bit.ly/hc4YDa for full article.

Written by : Nathan Johnson

Here is a great article I ran across with some great tips on running a successful campaign, as well as how to avoid some common social media marketing pitfalls.
 
Two-Way Conversations
You must listen and respond to your customers. This is more than just setting up a poll on your site. Having conversations that flow in both directions help you understand your customers' concerns, why they exist and what you can do to fix them.


The Personal Touch
Automated responses and standard letters are a great way to sabotage your social media marketing campaign. Social media is about equal conversations and recommendations. Just think, would you rather buy a new camera from a friend who recommends it or an automated newsletter?
 
Transparency
Be transparent and be honest. There are many compelling ways to raise public awareness for your company. Having hidden agendas or stretching the truth will simply backfire.

Be a Part of the Community
Acknowledge others in your community who offer value to your business. Take some time to really be a part of the community and share useful knowledge. Personality goes a long way. It’s a bit like making friends; you have to give a little to receive. You never know, you may build useful networks that extend offline. If you begin your campaign pushing only your content and disregarding the community, you will be dead on arrival.


Big Ideas can Beat Big Budgets
A successful social media campaign can prove to be one of the key catalysts in growth for a small- to medium-sized business. It can increase brand exposure and public relations for a fraction of traditional advertising costs and effort, as well as provide large-scale market research and product refinement ideas at no extra charge.
 
Soon, social media marketing will join seach-engine optimization as being an important aspect of every business marketing strategy. The speed with which trends evolve on the Internet can often be daunting, but social media marketing by large companies can be emulated in whole or in part by even very small businesses. It’s not the money; it’s the content marketing mindset that separates success and failure.

Interested in working with NewMediaPlus? Click here.

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/iko/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Click here http://bit.ly/hc4YDa for full article.

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

LinkedIn, LeapFish and Growing Your Business- Click here http://bit.ly/dJ423B for full article.

Written by : Christine Hueber

Answering questions on the business networking site LinkedIn is a tremendously effective strategy to grow your business and learn about new resources in one place.  Someone asked a question this week about LeapFish and business, so I looked into it.
LeapFish is a search aggregator that retreives results from other search engines and portals. It offers a new way to search, share and stay connected online by making the process easier to navigate, more integrated and more efficient. It provides a social media dashboard, as well as the ability to easily share. (I like that!)

How will this help you grow your business?  By making it more convenient for you to engage your audience with relevant, value-rich content that deepens your relationship with them.

It's extremely easy to share articles from the sources of your choice, like Mashable, and YouTube videos, as well.

The dashboard, in a column on the right of your screen, has both Facebook and Twitter feeds. Commenting and viewing your profile, friends' pages, your home screen, etc.,  is easy.

To me, it feels more interactive and dynamic than HootSuite (my favorite social media dashboard) because the feeds are so easy to share from one place.

I've just started exploring and would love your comments about it, especially tips and tricks on how you use it to grow your business.
Interested in working with NewMediaPlus? Click here.


Click here http://bit.ly/dJ423B for full article.

Monday, December 27, 2010

The Social Media Pest - Click here http://bit.ly/hOuhMy for full article.

Written by : Nathan Johnson

Have you ever received a friend request from someone on Facebook who appeared to have similar interest as you or was part of a group you joined, only to battered with webinar invites, their website links and other marketing materials? This pest is the social media equivalent of a telemarketer who will not stop calling.

I always recommend that people practice proper social grace and "netiquette" when marketing to their audience.

If you upset your potential customers or fan base, not only will you lose them as clients but their online barrage of negative comments could be extremely damaging to your credibility. There is a time, place and manner to ask for business using social media. Ideally, you want to use a strategy that makes the sale a natural progression from a relationship you have built rather than the hard-sell tactic of continuous solicitations. If you do not have the time or patience for this approach, hire a professional consultant who can help you build and maintain your social media assets and formulate a strategy that will create a good balance between relationships and generating revenue.

Interested in learning more about NewMediaPlus? Click here.

Photo credit: coolaggregator.wordpress.com/2008/07/07/ 

Click here http://bit.ly/hOuhMy for full article.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Dancing Christmas Present - Click here http://bit.ly/fj3f5M for full article.

Written by  :  NewMediaPlus Staff

From the ladies at NewMediaPlus to you, wishing you the best of the season!

Click here http://bit.ly/fj3f5M for full article.

Jeff Dunham's Achmed's 'Jingle Bombs' - Click here http://bit.ly/fQVrxL for full article.

Written by  :  NewMediaPlus Staff

Merry Christmas to all of our brave men and women serving our nation!

Click here http://bit.ly/fQVrxL for full article

SocialOomph and Stopping Spammers - Click here http://bit.ly/ff7n7Q for full article.

Written by : Michael Currey

I've been designing and developing websites for awhile, now, but social media was just a hobby until recently. Now I'm reading everything I can and trying things out on my own assets to, one, learn by doing, and two, gain a deeper understanding of how it all works together and why one strategy works for business A and not business B.

I recently started using SocialOomph to learn more about it after reading various posts and found it useful to to some basic automation of my Twitter account. Among its features is the ability to send new followers a message and to follow them back. I thought this was great so I left it at that.

What I didn't do was take advantage of the vetting options. They give you a three-day window to check out your new followers and see if you'd like to follow them back. This means more work on your part but it's probably worth it if you've signed up in the anti-spam war.

The problem with auto-following someone is that there are lots of spammers out there with "ghost" accounts whose only mission is to accumulate followers. By auto-following, you're encouraging this behavior!

Thankfully, Social Oomph has some tools to help you out so you can at least get rid of the most obvious offenders. There's a selector for the percentile difference in the number of followers versus the number followed, if the account has status updates, and how long ago the account was created. There's more but you get the idea.

So to get started, take a look at who's following you and figure out if you really need to be following them. I know it's polite on Twitter to follow who's following you, but there have to be limits and spammers are on my hit list.


Click here http://bit.ly/ff7n7Q for full article.

It's Jingle Bell Time! - Click here http://bit.ly/h9yCy9 for full article.

Peek Inside Santa's Crib - Click here http://bit.ly/gf0xLH for full article.

NewMediaPlus Staff

A bit of Christmas cheer from everyone at NewMediaPlus to you!

7 Steps to Mounting a Foursquare Swarm Campaign - Click here http://bit.ly/hlkZcI for full article.

Written by : Martin Stein

Ah, the heady days of San Francisco in 2003 when the flash mob phenomenon began to take hold. It wasn’t long before what allegedly started in New York City by a senior editor with Harper’s Magazine swept the country and then the world.

Today, flash mobs have died out to a great degree, with the mobs turning into flash riots being partially to blame. But, through the use of Foursquare, it’s possible for small- and medium-sized companies to use the same concept to promote their business.

One of the most coveted badges (emblems that users can earn through checking into participating venues) is the Swarm Badge. The requirement seems simple enough: Be one of 50 or more people who have already checked into the same place within three hours. However, outside of checking into concerts or sporting events, being someplace with that sizable number of Foursquare members can be tricky. That’s where you step in by creating an event at your company almost guaranteed to draw you dozens and dozens of customers.

A case study can be found here, and below are the instructions.

Step 1 Pick a time and date. You’ll want it to be during a period when your business is typically slow but also when it will be convenient for people to show up. If you’re a bar, for instance, 1 p.m. on a work day is bad but 3 p.m. on a weekend could be ideal.

Step 2 Pick a charity. Yes, it’s great to have your cash registers go ring-a-ding-ding (to paraphrase Frank Sinatra) but giving part of the proceeds to a worthy cause is not only a great thing to do but will serve the dual purpose of encouraging fence-sitters to show up and generate great word-of-mouth (and maybe even some publicity).

Step 3 Add an extra inducement. Yes, earning the Swarm Badge is exciting but create some added value by offering two-for-one drinks or a discount on purchased items during those three hours.

Step 4 Promote the event. If possible, have some print collateral produced to advertise the swarm in-house, such as tent cards for counters and tables or flyers you can slip into customers’ shopping bags. Create a page on your website and a custom Facebook tab. And be sure to use your other social media assets such as Twitter.

Step 5 Hold the event.

Step 6 Capture the information. If you have any sort of customer loyalty program, now is the time to get people to sign up. Set up an Internet-connected computer for the public to use to “Like” your Facebook page, follow you on Twitter and so forth.

Step 7 Document it. Have someone videotape the event, both for your own promotional use and for the charity’s. If possible, set up a Web camera to stream it live on the Internet. Finally, after the event, be sure to let everyone know how successful it was and how much money was raised.

If this sounds like a lot of work, that’s because it is. But, with the right social media marketing company as your partner, you’ll be sure to not only have a great event but also raise your business’ brand and reputation.

It's Jingle Bell Time! - Click here http://bit.ly/h9yCy9 for full article.

Get Free Calls Through Google Voice – Click here http://bit.ly/eWPeBg for full article.

Making calls from Gmail is helpful in situations when cell phone reception is poor or nonexistent, or a very quick call needs to be made to arrange a meeting or social plans. The service is available anywhere there is an Internet connection, and through 2011, all calls within the U.S.A. or to Canada are free.

Here's how to get them:

The first step toward free calls from Gmail is setting up a Google voice number. This is very fast and easy to do, and the number will automatically be associated with the mail account. The number comes with forwarding, voice mail, text and message transcription. All activity is logged and all voice mails are recorded for easy reference later on.

Before placing a call from Gmail, the free Voice and Video chat plug-in must be installed. Afterward, click on the Call Phone icon for any contact. This will bring up a window with a numerical keypad that can be dialed like a regular phone. All calls made from Gmail will show the Google voice number on the recipient's caller ID.

Gmail users can receive free incoming calls, as well. To activate this feature, at least one outgoing call must be made from the mail account, and in voice settings the Chat box must be checked under the Phone tab. When an incoming call is received, a call window will appear with the choices to Answer or Ignore. There is also a screen feature to help prioritize calls. All unanswered calls go to voice mail.

All calls started in Gmail can be switched to the forwarding phone at any point by pressing the asterisk key.

A similar and popular product is Skype. Skype requires the download of software and is a peer-to-peer technology, which can use a lot of computer resources and bandwidth. Google Voice offers more convenience by running directly in the browser and being easily accessed from the email account. It's also gentler on the Internet connection, freeing up resources for multitasking.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Blogs in Plain English

Chrome Getting Closer To Firefox with 10,000 Extensions - Click here http://bit.ly/hb9eY0 for full article.

Written by : Michael Currey

Since its introduction to the computing public over two years ago, Google's Chrome browser has steadily increased its market share and total user base to become one of the most popular browsers on the Web.

Chrome's success over that time frame should surprise nobody as it's arguably the best browser available. Fast, reliable and largely standards compliant, Chrome easily wins hands-down over its competitors when it comes to raw performance. It now seems that Chrome may soon take the extensibility crown away from its main rival, Firefox, within the next few months.

The number of extensions available for Chrome recently breached the 10,000 mark, bringing it closer to Mozilla's flagship product in terms of extended functionality. The main selling points for Firefox have traditionally been its rock-solid stability and rich ecosystem of third-party plug-ins or "add-ons".

Ranging from the developer's favorite tool, Firebug, to mainstream essentials like AdBlock Plus and Flashblock, to name a few, Firefox has an extension for every need. But Chrome is catching up fast in that department and offers similar extensions in nearly every area. Ultimately, that level of customization may be what's needed to lure users away from Firefox for good.

Though many have already jumped on the Chrome bandwagon, there are still many die-hard Firefox fans who refuse to switch.

Firefox was, at one, point superior to Microsoft's Internet Explorer in nearly every way, which is what led to it's impressive surge in popularity over the last few years. Unfortunately, Mozilla hasn't been able to keep that momentum up and may actually be slipping in terms of quality, and most importantly, speed.

It's no secret that Chrome is blazingly fast while Firefox, in comparison, can seem sluggish and bloated. Though the upcoming Firefox 4 will no doubt feature many improvements, the question remains as to whether Firefox can hold onto its market share in the face of Chrome's relentless onslaught.

In addition to free add-ons, Chrome also features its own Web Store, where developers can sell their own custom applications. Like the App Store for Apple's iOS mobile devices, it gives programmers the ability to monetize their unique and groundbreaking ideas by marketing to a wide audience of computer users.

Where does all of this leave Firefox? That remains to be seen, as it's clearly not going anywhere anytime soon. But the luster seems to have worn off for the open-source browser, and the folks at Mozilla have their work cut out for them if they want to stave off what seems like the inevitable as users desert them for the greener grass of Google's Chrome.

Click here http://bit.ly/hb9eY0 for full article.

Free Themes for WordPress: Legal Credits or Illegal Encryption? – Click here http://bit.ly/ge8Iej for full article..

Written by : Nina Khoury 

With WordPress being the most widely used blogging platform on the 'net today, users' demands to style their blogs is growing steadily. But not every blogger has the financial wherewithal to purchase some of the higher-end themes, especially if a search for "free wordpress themes" on Google yields over 50 million results (okay, not of all these results might be 100 percent relevant, but you still get the point).

Weeding through all results is an impossible task, and finding the perfect one for your blog is even harder than you might think. I dare to compare it to buying a car: Always make sure you look under the hood, as well, to make sure there are no unwanted surprises lurking underneath.

The same is true for quite a bunch of free WordPress themes; unfortunately for most users, they only find this out after they have already downloaded and installed the new theme and learned to love the look and feel of it.

There is one exception: The (sometimes really strange) links in the footer cannot be removed or changed because the whole footer is either encoded, or when in plain text, as soon as changes are made to the content, the theme returns an error message stating you have no permission to change or remove the footer links as "this is part of the license agreement."

Now, besides the fact that according to WordPress, themes are subject to the GPL, too, (which, in layman's terms means that all PHP code can always be modified by the user and cannot be copyrighted or protected) how does one know what the code does, especially when the footer is encoded in some garbled chunk of code similar to this:

$_F=__FILE__;$_X='Pz48P3BocA0KLyoqDQogKiBUaDUgdDVtcGwxdDUgZjJyIGQ0c3BsMXk0bmcgdGg1IGYyMnQ1ci4NCiAqDQogKiBDMm50MTRucyB0aDUgY2wyczRuZyAyZiB0aDUgNGQ9b TE0biBkNHYgMW5kIDFsbCBjMm50NW50DQogKiAxZnQ1ci4NCiAqDQogKiBAcDFjazFnNSBXMnJkUHI1c3MNCiAqIEBzM2JwMWNrMWc1IG0ybjJjaHIybTUNCiAqLw0KPz4NCgk8L2Q0dj48IS0t ICNtMTRuIC0tPg0KICAgIDxkNHYgNGQ9ImYyMnQ1ciIgcjJsNT0iYzJudDVudDRuZjIiPg0KICAgIAk8P3BocA0KCQkJLyogQSBzNGQ1YjFyIDRuIHRoNSBmMjJ0NXI/IFk1cC4gWTIzIGMxbiB jMW4gYzNzdDJtNHo1DQoJCQkgKiB5MjNyIGYyMnQ1ciB3NHRoIGYyM3IgYzJsM21ucyAyZiB3NGRnNXRzLg0KCQkJICovDQoJCQlnNXRfczRkNWIxciggJ2YyMnQ1cicgKTsNCgkJPz4NCiAgIC AJPGQ0diA0ZD0iYzJsMnBoMm4iPg0KICAgICAgICAgICAgPGQ0diA0ZD0iczR0NS00bmYyIiBjbDFzcz0iY2w1MXJmNHgiPg0KICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgIDxkNHYgNGQ9Imc1bjVyMXQyciI+U DJ3NXI1ZCBieSA8MSBocjVmPSJodHRwOi8vdzJyZHByNXNzLjJyZy8iIHQ0dGw1PSJTNW0xbnQ0YyBQNXJzMm4xbCBQM2JsNHNoNG5nIFBsMXRmMnJtIiByNWw9Imc1bjVyMXQyciI+VzJyZHBy NXNzPC8xPiAxbmQgPDEgaHI1Zj0iaHR0cDovL3dwY3IzbmNoeS5jMm0iIHQ0dGw1PSJGcjU1IFByNW00M20gUTMxbDR0eSBXMnJkcHI1c3MgVGg1bTVzIj5XUENyM25jaHk8LzE+PC9kNHY+DQo gICAgICAgICAgICAgICAgPGQ0diA0ZD0iY3I1ZDR0cyI+RDVzNGduNWQgYnkgPDEgaHI1Zj0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy5oMnN0cjV2NDV3ZzU1a3MuYzJtIiB0NHRsNT0iYjVzdCB3NWIgaDJzdDRuZy IgdDFyZzV0PSJfYmwxbmsiPmI1c3QgdzViIGgyc3Q0bmc8LzE+LiBJbiBjMmxsMWIycjF0NDJuIHc0dGggPDEgaHI1Zj0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy5oMnN0di5jMm0iIHQ0dGw1PSJWUFMgSDJzdDRuZ yIgdDFyZzV0PSJfYmwxbmsiPlZQUyBIMnN0NG5nPC8xPiwgPDEgaHI1Zj0iaHR0cDovL2JyMjFkdzF5dDRjazV0cy5jMiIgdDR0bDU9IkJyMjFkdzF5IFQ0Y2s1dHMiIHQxcmc1dD0iX2JsMW5r IiA+QnIyMWR3MXkgVDRjazV0czwvMT4sIDwxIGhyNWY9Imh0dHA6Ly93cGMycm41ci5jMm0iIHQ0dGw1PSJGcjU1IFcycmRwcjVzcyBUaDVtNXMiIHQxcmc1dD0iX2JsMW5rIj5GcjU1IFcycmR wcjVzcyBUaDVtNXM8LzE+LjwvZDR2Pg0KICAgICAgICAgICAgPC9kNHY+DQogICAgICAgIDwvZDR2Pg0KICAgIDwvZDR2PjwhLS0gI2YyMnQ1ciAtLT4NCjwvZDR2PjwhLS0gI3dyMXBwNXIgLS 0+DQoNCjw/cGhwDQoJLyogQWx3MXlzIGgxdjUgd3BfZjIydDVyKCkgajNzdCBiNWYycjUgdGg1IGNsMnM0bmcgPC9iMmR5Pg0KCSAqIHQxZyAyZiB5MjNyIHRoNW01LCAyciB5MjMgdzRsbCBic jUxayBtMW55IHBsM2c0bnMsIHdoNGNoDQoJICogZzVuNXIxbGx5IDNzNSB0aDRzIGgyMmsgdDIgcjVmNXI1bmM1IEoxdjFTY3I0cHQgZjRsNXMuDQoJICovDQoNCgl3cF9mMjJ0NXIoKTsNCj8+ DQo8L2IyZHk+DQo8L2h0bWw+';eval(base64_decode('JF9YPWJhc2U2NF9kZWNvZGUoJF9YKTskX1g9c3RydHIoJF9YLCcxMjM0NTZhb3VpZScsJ2FvdWllMTIzNDU2Jyk7JF9SPWVyZWdfc mVwbGFjZSgnX19GSUxFX18nLCInIi4kX0YuIiciLCRfWCk7ZXZhbCgkX1IpOyRfUj0wOyRfWD0wOw=='));

There have been reports of actual malicious code either hidden directly in the code or being injected in the site remotely by using this questionable practice.

Not to mention that you have no control over what might happen in the future even if your site seems to be working perfectly today. The developer can hide practically anything in the code, from simple tracking scripts to email blasters and password sniffers that not only can exploit your database and WordPress usernames and passwords, but can potentially bring down your whole server.

Don't get me wrong, I give credit where credit is due (and expect the same in return). But don't advertise "free" when, in fact, it's not only not free, but also borderline illegal. 

More on this issue: WordPress user: Be careful where you get your theme from.

Click here http://bit.ly/ge8Iej for full article

Hashable Lets You Take Aim, Rustle Up More Business – Click here http://bit.ly/eCVi3I for full article.

Written by : Martin Stein

Owners of a small- and medium-sized companies need every tool they can get their hands on to manage their daily business, and dare we say, one day grow into a huge enterprise. They will use every tracking facility they can afford and all the online advertising they can get. This is in addition to mainline brand-building marketing strategies. Smart owners use sound business techniques to support their businesses and woo their customers.

What they especially need next is a way to effectively organize all that and use it to draw even more customers. Hashable and Twitter invite small- and mid-sized business owners to meet them and do exactly that.

So saddle up, boys and girls, there's a new saloon in town and it's open only by invitation. You can meet other cowpokes, trade war stories or seek new employment, plus keep a diary of sorts of your meetings, their purposes, outcomes and your opinions all in one place.

Very exclusive, the interaction found in the Hashable saloon can help keep your buddies organized, as well as draw other cowboys into the game, which could earn you an epic bonus check. Keeping up with Hashable on Twitter enables the seeker to round up other people with those who have like interests or businesses, thus making the roper popular with yet others who know the ropees.

One of the draws is that you can keep a public record via Twitter and Hashable of your activities, personal data, social interactions and such as if your diary was made public. This innovation allows the populace to evaluate your value to them, thereby strengthening your own standing. That strength puts you on the trail to further greatness based on your contacts' support. All this makes for a very nice saddle from which to rustle up all the business you can handle.

Using Hashable has the potential to net business owners strong customer bases, as well as improved business techniques through these activities and opinions. It gets them further along the trail and mates excellent sales forces and other employees with generation contacts that will build business.

Social networking is a presence that cannot be denied and can be used by small- and medium-sized companies to grow down the trail. Contact NewMediaPlus to find out more.

Click here http://bit.ly/eCVi3I  for full article

The World of Social Media Networks – Click here http://bit.ly/iadjZD for full article.

Written by : Nathan Johnson

Lately, it seems like new social networking websites are springing up every other week like mushrooms after a heavy rain. Though still a fairly young medium, social media has already proven that it can be a powerful communication tool if implemented properly.

What's more, the possibilities for small businesses looking to get the word out about themselves or a particular product or service are nearly endless. The main problem is taking that core idea of distributed, two-way, mass communication as facilitated by social media and translating it into viable and sustainable profits. Making money from social networking has proven harder than one might think, even for the sites themselves, in many cases.

It all began with the the ill-fated Friendster and a number of other also-rans, followed shortly thereafter by the wildly popular MySpace. The first social media and networking site to really hit the big time, MySpace proved that there was a market for what's essentially one big, global chat room. In the present day, Facebook has refined the concept into what appears to be a long-term strategy for monetizing social media traffic by centralizing all that interaction in one place. For many, Facebook is the Internet. There's a very good reason that Google is afraid of Facebook as a competitor.

While social media is great for keeping in touch with old friends and making new ones, businesses both large and small are still struggling to leverage social media's power for greater exposure. Large corporations can use social media to extend their reach, largely because they're already well-known. Smaller businesses don't have the luxury of being able to fail and need to make sure their efforts hit pay dirt and yield dividends immediately. Maintaining a Facebook presence for small businesses is always a good idea, as it's free and costs only their time.

Although there's no set formula for using social media successfully for marketing and advertising, one company seems to have hit on a fairly promising approach. That company is Groupon, which has become an overnight success story by offering small businesses the ability to leverage the power of crowds to attract new customers.

Groupon offers deep discounts to users on one-time offers of services and products for local businesses. The businesses only pay if users take them up on the coupons, splitting profits 50 percent with Groupon. In many cases, participating businesses have smashed sales records overnight. What's more, the site boasts a satisfaction rating of over 95 percent.

Ultimately, the only rule in social media is that success is always fleeting. To really take advantage of all that social media has to offer, you need to stay on top of trends and be adaptable and quick to capitalize on new opportunities.

Facebook is huge right now, and with good reason. It's a very popular service that many users feel genuinely enriches their lives online. But how long they'll remain the hottest show in town is impossible to tell, so it's best to diversify your social networking efforts to get the most out of it.

For information and help on achieving that goal, contact NewMediaPlus.

Click here  http://bit.ly/iadjZD  for full article

Monday, December 20, 2010

5 Secrets for Increasing Internet Banner Ad Click-Through Rates-Click here http://bit.ly/eHTzxffor full article.

Written by Katya Small

Click-through ad rates can be affected by many things. The performance of your banner ad is essential for good marketing and especially for your ROI. There are many things that can bring you more traffic and there are certain things that can reduce it. We'll just focus on the things that can bring your banner ads more traffic for now.

Animate Your Ad

Animation in your ad draws more attention to it. Animate small objects, words or have small characters related to your ad. The more movement in an object, the more the eye is drawn towards it. Just remember that too much movement can be a turn-off; moderation is better than overdoing it. If it's not pleasing to your eye, it's probably not going to be for others.

Keep Things Short and Sweet

When you're developing your ad, you don't want it to contain a short novel. Use short sentences to provide information, but keep things easy. Your elementary school teacher used to get on you for this, but don't worry, I'm sure she won't care when your click rates start to climb upward. Be careful not to incorporate too much information, though. You want them to find out more, not know everything about you from your ad and move on.

Use a Professional for Your Design

This is one investment you should make. With complicated text, pictures and slogans floating around your ad, you don't want it to become a burden in loading time. Too cluttered and it might look cheap, too spread out and the size becomes outrageous. The better designed your ad is, the smaller your ad should be. NewMediaPlus has numerous professional designers to help you make your ad stand out from the crowd.

Design Your Ad Around Your Audience

If your demographic is 18- to 40-year-old males who snowboard, you're not going to put a male bodybuilder with underwear in your ad to market your snowboarding website. Make sure you're designing your ad around the person whose attention you want. Just because it looks good to you doesn't mean it will grab the attention of others. Get a second and sometimes third opinion before making big decisions.

Review Your Performance Daily

You don't want to put up an ad and just walk away from it. Check on your performance daily, weekly and monthly. If it's producing good numbers but suddenly takes a turn downwards, you should be on top of it. Nothing will surprise you if you're reviewing your performance. Reviewing performance daily will also give you the information that you need to decide whether it's time to change something or let it ride.

Your click-through rate is essential to the success of your ad. Use these steps and your ad will give you the help you need to make it a success.

Click here http://bit.ly/eHTzxf for full article

YouTube Removes Its Time Limits -Click here http://bit.ly/dWlJNl for full article.

Written by Robert Rios

Good news for wannabe film makers and anyone else who has been stymied by YouTube's rule of only allowing videos 15 minutes or less to be uploaded. A selection of users are having the cap lifted as the company rewards its members who have abided by the site's community guidelines and copyright regulations.

The 15-minute time limit on YouTube videos has long been the bane of creative types and business owners who just aren't satisfied with having to break everything up into parts. In the past, you could apply for a Director's Account that would let you supersede the limit. Then, YouTube cancelled that service, leaving old account holders free to upload videos of any length but not allowing any more new applications. All other YouTubers have had to simply accept the 10-minute time limit (raised to 15 in July).

Partner Account holders, similarly, had been allowed to upload videos of any length, but in order to qualify for that status, you typically had to attain tens of thousands of views on your videos first, and still go through the application and approval process.

This time limit was not to preserve bandwidth or storage space, but rather to keep users from uploading copyright-protected movies and TV shows that they had downloaded from the Web. This didn't deter pirates, though. It only left them dividing half-hour shows into thirds and movies into chapters of roughly 9 minutes, 59 seconds each.

YouTube may have realized that its anti-piracy measures proved simply a hindrance rather than a safeguard, and it's taking the first steps towards getting rid of the ceiling.

For now, the removal of these limits isn't quite universal. New users still will have the 15-minute limit while established account holders with no major copyright violations to their credit will be allowed to upload longer videos.

YouTube has clarified that it's going to be "taking their time rolling this out", suggesting that an eventual universal lift on the time limits may well take place at some point in the future.

This seems to tie in nicely with YouTube's use of video-matching, wherein it will take legal material uploaded by content holders and seek out video matches on the site, instantly finding and removing any illicit copies of copyrighted material.

What does this mean for YouTubers? It could mean that we're going to see the site become an even bigger player in the new media, allowing users to upload entire Web shows and independent films, or it could just mean that video bloggers are more free to go on and on for hours on end. We'll have to wait and see.

Click here http://bit.ly/dWlJNl for full article.

Facebook Introduces Facial Recognition - Click here http://bit.ly/h5LxLO for full article.

Written by Martin Stein

Who is this?

That's the pop-up tag suggestion question you'll soon be seeing as you upload photos to your Facebook profile. This feature, just added, hopes to make photo-tagging a simpler task. Further, it appears to be a part of a larger effort to make the entire photo-tagging process more efficient.

This upgrade by Facebook should help to eliminate that pesky confusion of knowing whose face belongs to whom when you move your mouse over two or more people in a group photo, making it easier than the current photo-tagging.

As an example, let's say you're looking at a holiday office party photo of five colleagues, one cheering with a jug filled with 64 ounces of beer next to someone else with 12 ounces of Coke. You might yield an incorrect display of the person's name as you mouse over the photo because the two co-workers beverages and all the other bodies are too close together. This erratic mouse movement might make it difficult to determine who is the lush and who is the designated driver.

With photo recognition, this confusion is eliminated utilizing algorithms to provide tagging suggestions. Now, as you upload those photos, the photo recognition application zeros in on the faces much like the precision of a crosshairs scope of a combat weapon so you can precisely add the name of the individual to the face—all without any mishaps or misfires.

Facebook hasn't been without controversy regarding its sometimes dismissive stance concerning privacy. However, Face.com uses an "auto-tag" feature to facilitate the time-consuming task of photo-tagging and does so at an eerily high percentage of correct correlations. Facebook, on the other hand, does not use auto-tag, at least for now. Facebook also will allow users to opt out of tag suggestions just by changing their privacy settings and disabling the "suggest photos of me to friends."

Facebook expects that this new feature of simplifying photo-tagging for its millions of users will influence even more users to upload and tag photos—making it more convenient for the social media giant to create even more narcissism—but in a good way.

Click here http://bit.ly/h5LxLO for full article.

Friday, December 17, 2010

Social Media

How Long Does Social Media Marketing Take?

Click here http://bit.ly/eY06qg for full article.Written by Katya Small

It's no secret that having an effective social media presence is key to reaching as many potential clients as possible, but most small- and mid-sized business owners don't appreciate what it takes to get a successful social media marketing campaign up and running.

As with so many other things in business, the amount of time needed to promote yourself over social media depends on the goals that you are setting for your campaign. If you only want to establish a presence on all of the major social media sites so that your existing customers and a few potential clients can easily find you, then you should be able to get up to speed in as little as a few hours.

Creating a meaningful network of contacts, clients, partners and fans that are actively engaged in promoting your brand is a whole different story.

Leveraging the power of social media does not happen overnight. The individuals who use these services the most expect companies to provide them with useful content and demonstrate that they take their social media presence seriously. In most cases, this means that you need to have at least one person on your team who is held accountable for building up a network of friends and followers, sharing content that is relevant, interacting with users, and keeping tabs on discussions that are relevant to your industry.

While this is not a full-time job, it does require a certain amount of time. If you want to have a truly meaningful social media presence, you should have at least one person working on this project for one to two hours a day. With this amount of time and energy, you should expect to see positive results within a couple of weeks and you will find that you get more out of your campaign as time progresses and your social media presence expands.

If you lack the resources to handle it in-house, then contact a reputable social media marketing company for help.

One of the most common mistakes that business owners make when they begin their first social media marketing campaign is that they spend too much time updating their statuses, replying to comments and expanding their social media presence. As anyone who has spent much time using social media knows, these services can become a tremendous time-suck if you are not careful.

If you want to get your social media marketing campaign off the ground as quickly as possible, your best option is to use some of the top-notch third-party tools that are designed for busy professionals like yourself. By investing a small amount of money in tools like HootSuite, Monitter and TweetDeck, you can automate 80 percent of your campaign while reaching your campaign's goals twice as quickly.

Get Your In with LinkedIn

Click here http://bit.ly/gMCxMK  for full article.  Written by Martin Stein

LinkedIn is an excellent tool for networking ... and not just for job hunters. Small- and mid-sized business owners benefit from using LinkedIn to generate new customers and identify talent for their companies. With more and more profiles on LinkedIn, it is important for you to optimize your account. Here are the steps you must take to make the most of this tool:

Fill in Your Profile

Make sure that you have provided all the basic information that LinkedIn asks for so that your profile is shown at 100 percent. This includes an opportunity to chat up your company through using its Resume Builder tool.

Interact with Other LinkedIn Members

LinkedIn is all about linking you with other potential contacts so join groups that are of interest to you and your business. Look for groups that are targeted to small- and mid-sized business owners in your area or industry. Each group has its own message board so be sure to join the conversations. Your well-thought-out responses are sure to generate potential new contacts looking at your profile.

Get Recommended

Ask people in your current network to recommend your work. This could be current or former colleagues, employees, or perhaps best of all, your clients. When your clients vouch for your work, your company will gain credibility, leading to greater potential for new contacts and eventual sales through LinkedIn.

Answer Some Questions

Define yourself as an expert in your area. Whether you are a pharmacist, tax accountant or interior decorator, the LinkedIn Q&A section has questions for you to answer. When another LinkedIn member ranks your response as the best, you get points, which show others that you are well-versed in your area of expertise. You can answer up to 50 questions each 24-hour period, and the subject matter experts who are routinely ranked the best log on each day for a couple of hours to do so. As a result, their profile views are greatly increased.

Use The Add-Ons

LinkedIn makes it easy for you to link your social media accounts to LinkedIn. This means that if you or your company are using Twitter to promote your work, you can add your Twitter account to you LinkedIn account so that when people view your profile, it is easy for them to find you on Twitter and follow you.

This is really only scratching the surface on how to use this great social-media networking platform to market and increase your business. Our site is full of other articles:

LinkedIn Unveils Share Button

LinkedIn Enhancements

For more personalized help, contact our experts.


Make Money with Location Platforms

Click here http://bit.ly/igny5X for full article.Written by Katya Small

There are multiple programs that customers can use to check in at locations. The three best known and popular applications are Foursquare, Gowalla and Facebook Places. (Although Facebook Places has the same concept as the others, it is part of Facebook as a whole.) They all incorporate a system of checking in and posting locations for others to see. The prospect of showing others where you are is an ingenious development in the social media world.

Think about this: John Smith enters Pop's Café, orders a small coffee and sits down. He pulls out his smartphone and "checks in" through one of the many applications. About three minutes later his friend, Mike, texts and asks if he wants to study for the big test. Mike shows up and checks in, as well. From there, three of John's friends show up at the coffee shop after seeing on their own accounts that John is there with Mike. They all order some sort of menu items and spend time at the café.

It is a subtle but extremely efficient way to bring clientele to a location. This sort of scenario happens at businesses all over, with people checking in, notifying friends and starting a chain reaction.

If the friends have not been to the store, restaurant, office, etc., before, it gives them the idea to try out new places. Think about it: if you see your friends checking into a place multiple times, you are going to think it is a good place and you should try it out. You are going to believe their word-of-mouth over some billboard, TV or radio commercial or magazine or story.

This influential marketing employs a medium that is extremely easy to use, and is dramatically less expensive than traditional advertising, marketing or public relations.

Other applications are popping up all the time, but one that has a different twist on check-in concept is SCVNGR.

SCVNGR has taken the check-in and turned it into a game. Instead of just checking in at a location, you complete a challenge that the business or person has set up for you. Once you complete it, you post the completion and earn points towards real rewards such as discounts or freebies.

Facebook and Foursquare have systems so any business can offer specials where a check-in on a certain day or time equals a discount or a free product, as well.

Foursquare has a specific system that maintains the number of check-ins and awards a "mayorship" to the person with the highest check-ins at a location. These mayorships can be set up to be accompanied with special incentives from the business, from free upgrades to special discounts.

Other campaigns can be created surrounding your own particular business, and even be used to generate the kind of additional publicity that PR firms charge thousands of dollars for. (To find out more, contact NewMediaPlus.)

As a location administrator, you might be asking yourself, "If I'm giving away free products to the mayor and other people, what's stopping people from checking in from their couch and just becoming the mayor?"

These applications all utilize smartphones' GPS functions to assess if a customer is really in the area or if they are checking in from across town.

These all take little effort and are free. Put your business on the map and let people check in!

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Business Blogging Best Practices

Business Blogging Best Practices 

Click here http://bit.ly/fQA1He  for the full article.

 NewMediaPlus.Net is the leading blog for social media marketing information, click here to view the website


reading_blog

Blogging, just like that outdated, old fashioned form of communication called newspapers, need to be reader-friendly. But while that other medium has had centuries to figure things out, blogs are relatively new. However, the basics still hold true: compelling content (or, as an old editor of mine used to put it: "Tell me something I don't already know."), make it easy on the eyes, and be clear.

That being said, there are many aspects unique to blogging, and especially to blogging about your own business. Here, then, is a list of what to do and what to avoid for creating a successful blog, based on a great post by Denise Wakeman at Social Media Examiner.

Plan your blog. Keep in mind your company's mission statement and business plan.

Have a clear idea of what results you want. Increased revenue? Expanding your customer base?

Define who your ideal reader is and then write posts to appeal to him or her. To quote from Wakeman, "If you make dog food, don't talk about dog food. Talk about dogs."

Write up a list of keywords and phrases that describe your business. Test them out on Google's free Keyword tool and then be sure to use them in your writing. But do it without using jargon.

Newspapers run photos of their columnists to build relationships with their readers. Do the same, and attach the author's name.

Find a posting schedule you can live with and try to stick to it. The biggest reason people read newspapers is habit. You want your blog readers to develop the habit of expecting something from you every Wednesday at 2:30 p.m.

But, if you don't have anything to post, skip it. Don't post junk just to stay on schedule.

Just like an entire newspaper page of nothing but text scares readers away, keep your posts short. If they run long, break it up into short paragraphs, use bullet points, insert photos or videos, etc.

Blog on your own site. Yes, free ones exist but someone going to "Blog.MyBusiness.Com" isn't helping traffic (or business) at "MyBusiness.com".

Blogging is a form of social media networking so give your readers the ability to network. Install sharing plug-ins and widgets so your fans can tweet, post your content to Facebook, recommend it on StumbleUpon and so on.

Offer an email list so people can get your posts sent right to their inbox. Not only is it convenient but it also builds up your customer database.

Along with setting aside time to write and post your blog, make sure you take the time to market it through your own social media assets.

Take time to respond to comments and questions. Unlike the Letters to the Editor page, social media is a two-way street, and letting your readers know that you, in turn, read and value their comments, will help cement your relationships.

If you run out of ideas, ask your readers.

Finally: give it time! Just like in life, it takes a while to build real, strong relationships.

Click here http://bit.ly/fQA1He  for the full article.

Social Networking, Communications Predictions for 2011

Social Networking, Communications Predictions for 2011 

Click here http://bit.ly/h77z9N for the full article.

NewMediaPlus.Net is the leading blog for social media marketing information, click here to view the website.

Written by Freddy Wahler | 15 December 2010

 crystal_ball1

 

Many industry and marketing professionals have been asking what to expect in 2011. Here are some thoughts based on my own experience and research.

The notion of doing business without social media in the coming years will be as antiquated as doing business without using email. It is no longer a buzzword or a fad. It is the future of marketing, and those who don't plan on integrating it into their model will be wondering why they're the last company to get on board and experience the same fate as the cassette tape and the buggy whip.

Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT) is considered by many to be the world's leading information technology research and advisory company.

It highlighted the top 10 technologies and trends that will be strategic for most organizations in 2011.

Gartner defines a strategic technology as, "one with the potential for significant impact on the enterprise in the next three years. Factors that denote significant impact include a high potential for disruption to IT or the business, the need for a major dollar investment, or the risk of being late to adopt."

Social media is one of these technologies and will need to be integrated with everything from websites to blogs and all other forms of marketing and media to be effective.

In the same manner that businesses currently use sales forecasting and other metrics, there will be a massive flight of companies looking not just for social media strategies but also for the metrics by which to measure their effectiveness.

Someone once told me that you cannot manage what you cannot measure. Some companies may be familiar with Web analytics that measure things like impressions and unique visitors, but when this is tied in with new marketing analytics which can measure calls to action, influence and reach, the impact of social media becomes well-defined and understood.

The only question that remains is who will be the industry leaders in utilizing this tool and how can smaller businesses avail themselves of these technologies and methodologies in their current models. And the answers to who will capitalize and who will be left behind set the stage for an exciting 2011.

Click here http://bit.ly/h77z9N for the full article.

Social Networking, Communications Predictions for 2011

Social Networking, Communications Predictions for 2011 

Click here http://bit.ly/h77z9N for the full article.

NewMediaPlus.Net is the leading blog for social media marketing information, click here to view the website.

Written by Freddy Wahler | 15 December 2010

 crystal_ball1

 

Many industry and marketing professionals have been asking what to expect in 2011. Here are some thoughts based on my own experience and research.

The notion of doing business without social media in the coming years will be as antiquated as doing business without using email. It is no longer a buzzword or a fad. It is the future of marketing, and those who don't plan on integrating it into their model will be wondering why they're the last company to get on board and experience the same fate as the cassette tape and the buggy whip.

Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT) is considered by many to be the world's leading information technology research and advisory company.

It highlighted the top 10 technologies and trends that will be strategic for most organizations in 2011.

Gartner defines a strategic technology as, "one with the potential for significant impact on the enterprise in the next three years. Factors that denote significant impact include a high potential for disruption to IT or the business, the need for a major dollar investment, or the risk of being late to adopt."

Social media is one of these technologies and will need to be integrated with everything from websites to blogs and all other forms of marketing and media to be effective.

In the same manner that businesses currently use sales forecasting and other metrics, there will be a massive flight of companies looking not just for social media strategies but also for the metrics by which to measure their effectiveness.

Someone once told me that you cannot manage what you cannot measure. Some companies may be familiar with Web analytics that measure things like impressions and unique visitors, but when this is tied in with new marketing analytics which can measure calls to action, influence and reach, the impact of social media becomes well-defined and understood.

The only question that remains is who will be the industry leaders in utilizing this tool and how can smaller businesses avail themselves of these technologies and methodologies in their current models. And the answers to who will capitalize and who will be left behind set the stage for an exciting 2011.

Click here http://bit.ly/h77z9N for the full article.