Marketing Blog of Jim Caruso

JumpStart Inbound Marketing & Lead Generation

jimcaruso — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 04:33:58 +0000

<p>Many clients want to get their inbound marketing efforts off to a strong start, writing blog content and Lead Nurturing Email campaigns. Blogging, offers (giveaways), Calls-To-Action, and Landing Pages comprise best practices for online lead generation. For success, you need to deliver blog posts regularly.

Your Inbound Marketing initiative needs:

Project manager overseeing writers, delivering on time, and implementing graphics and layout
Senior staff with experience writing website content, blog posts, and press releases
A review of keywords to assure that these are buyer keywords for targeted segments
Content ideas for approval as proposed titles, keywords, or drip campaigns for the buyer(s)
Case Studies in an easily readable format that is as appealing as a blog post
Emails for Lead Nurturing, Marketing Automation that guides prospects through the sales funnel
Interviews of your staff or customers for blog and case study content with customer quotes
A Call-To-Action (CTA) paired with an offer (giveaway) for lead capture and email nurturing
Additional CTAs that are Bottom-of-the-Funnel, for prospects that are ready to buy now
Landing Page paired with a Lead Capture Form that asks for enough info, but not too much
SEO Meta tags: Alt text, keywords, and description to accompany a blog post or landing page

Author, Jim Caruso, discusses inbound marketing for lead generation. B2B companies leverage internet marketing using the analytics and methodology provided by Hubspot. MediaFirst is a Hubspot Certified Partner. If you need help, call 770.642.2080 and MediaFirst can help you get started.

7 Reasons Your SEO Efforts Fail

jimcaruso — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 18:43:38 +0000

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) firms sell snake oil. Unfortunately, that is how it looks to lots of us, customers of the SEO firm. These are all real issues that I've seen over many years.

Here are the 7 reasons your SEO spend is ineffective:

1.) Search Engines Rank Pages, Not Websites

Remember that Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines rank individual pages, not your website as a whole.

If your SEO company builds links to your home page, but never to the pages for your products or services, these pages will never rank highly in comparison to your competitor's product and services pages.

SEO Companies need to offer optimization that drives traffic to your product and service pages. Although I'm not going to discuss online lead generation in this blog post, be aware that each of your pages need a Call-To-Action (CTA) that will capture leads from visitors.

2.) Your Website Can't Be Found By The Search Engines

Ever see a really beautiful website? Gorgeous website, appealing graphics, lovely video, etc?

If the site is built entirely in Adobe Flash or Flex, it is possible that the website has absolutely no text. Believe it or not, this still happens. My friend Scott was working with a company just last year. The guy had real web traffic and good revenues from his old ugly site, but had it rebuilt. The new site was pretty, but had no text. No text, means that search engine, such as Google, can't see the site, at all, nada, for real.

Rather than beat this into the ground, understand that text on your website is the primary factor that drives traffic via search.

3.) You Annoy Web Visitors, Maybe With Too Much Video, A Culturally Inappropriate Look, or The Wrong Industry Terms

These are really 3 issues. There are other examples of angering web visitors, like making navigation or search difficult.

Video and motion: Does your video play automatically? Are there 3 or 4 videos or animations that play simultaneously? Did a non-industry person or the wrong person write the text? My favorite example is that in the utility industry for wires attached to poles, telephone companies use the term aerial plant, while electric utilities use the term overhead plant.

You website should be pleasant to use and useful for the visitor.

4.) The Wrong Keywords, Such As High Traffic Keywords Rather Than Your Buyer's Or Customer's Keyword

Buyer Keywords are the words that your buying prospect will use to find your website and your products or services. It can be very difficult to compete with the high traffic keywords, yet these may not bring buyers. What is your buyer searching? For us, it includes the terms: agency, firm, and company.

Competing for the wrong keywords wastes your time and money on search engine optimization, but worse than that it can cause you to spend on advertising for these same, incorrect, sub-optimal keywords.

5.) Low Quality Links From Link-Building

One great way to raise the search engine rank of any page is to build links. My best links come from alliance partners, suppliers, industry directories, and the websites that I built that are ten (10) years old.

There are lots of link-builders with terrible, low ranking directories that generate visitors that will never buy. These can confuse you into believing that you are building more traffic, when this traffic has no value.

6.) Bad Content, Bad Writing

This is similar to the issue of using the wrong industry terms in written text. Good content is clear, helps your reader, honestly reveals truths, and is worth sharing among co-workers and friends.

Writing has a tone, a voice. It becomes the voice of your company. Is it conversational or formal? Which suits your reader? Readability, in part, is the grade-level-equivalence of your writing. For example, many newspapers write for 8th grade readers. However, if you are writing about optimization or economics or finance, chances are you will have difficulty keeping it down to 12th or college-level, which is fine. The business reader, technology geek, or automobile enthusiast will know and understand the terminology of the industry. We have this issue all the time with tech software firms and supply chain optimization clients.

7) Failing To Leverage Social Networks & Social Media

Sharing your content over social media, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter can carry your story far beyond your website. While at a conference in Denmark, I sat a a lunch table with a group of web guys. One knew of me and followed me on Twitter, amazing.

There are many tools that will share your content, such as blog posts, directly from your website, even as they go live. In addition, sharing buttons, such as Google plus one "+1," Facebook "Like," Twitter, and email sharing let visitors send your content to colleagues and friends.

Link shorteners, such as bit.ly, transparently pass SEO credit to your website. Bit.ly Pro offers the ability to view your traffic.

Just do it. Share your content and make it easy for others to share from your website.

SxSW 2012: Meet me there - SxSW, Event, Conference - South by Southwest Interactive (SxSWi)

jimcaruso — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:20:42 +0000

Connect At South by Southwest Interactive (SxSWi)

You can reach your audience at SxSW, MediaFirst can help. SxSW. Programs of pre-conference publicity and on-the-ground tactics grow awareness, establish alliances, and win new business.

This blog post summarizes some tactics for:

Pre-conference publicity,
Exhibiting at the trade show, and
Connecting with your audience, bloggers, and the media.

At SxSW Conferences, we generated leads, established alliance partnerships, and got press coverage:

Attended South by Southwest Interactive (SxSWi) conference for theseveral years
Recommended that clients consider exhibiting, it is reasonable
We've worked in the client's booth, generating leads
Evangelized a second client's technologies, finding alliance partners
We are experienced in scheduling press/media/blogger interviews at trade shows
we give you a briefing book, listing press appointments, background, and topic ideas

We will have staff at SxSW, available to facilitate interviews, help with events, or get leads.

NOTE: In 2012, SxSW registration is Thursday 8 MAR. Exhibits are only Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday - overlapping the Interactive and Music parts of SxSW. Interactive attendees, the target audience, leave by Wednesday. All appointments should be targeted for Monday or Tuesday.

Leverage your Exhibitor status at SxSW to obtain the list of pre-registered media and bloggers = people with press credentials at SxSW.

PRE-SxSW:

Get the pre-registered press attendee list at SxSW.
Create pitches, get interviews leading to press coverage.
Set up interviews, appointments, or demos at SxSW.
Pitch to media outlets covering or attending SxSW, maybe Mashable, TechCrunch, ReadWriteWeb, etc.
Pitch to people who review new technologies, some do video interviews of firms, such as start-ups.
Write and issue press releases (wire service fee is about $300 each). Launch, funding, customer, etc.
Schedule appointments: bloggers, press/media, experts, and the audience. Also reach out to the "Social Media gurus," but get to the people who gain the most from your product or service.

AT SxSW:

Create and deliver a "Media Briefing Book" that lists your appointments with the media and bloggers
Be on-the-ground at SxSW to see that appointments happen as scheduled
Attend targeted audience presentations at SxSW and evangelize your technologies, products or services
Find events at SxSW that include the target blogs/bloggers, media outlets, or audiences
If giving demos at the event, get the right "Buns-In-Seats" - in the booth for a demo: reporters, bloggers, your audiences

Guidelines & Thoughts on Posting Photos, Images & Video to Your Firm's Facebook Page

jimcaruso — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 04:08:17 +0000

Guidelines & Thoughts on Posting Photos, Images & Video to Your Firm's Facebook Page

Carefully, add images to the "Products" photo album. Make sure the image is clear and add explanatory descriptors properly. No duplicate photos or videos.

Photo Albums:

- Each Album gets a "description"

- Each image can have a "comment"

- If a person is in the image, they can be tagged, "Tag This Photo"

- If appropriate, a photo can have a location, "Add Location"

Videos still need this:

- get a Title

- get a Description

- If appropriate, a photo can have a location, "Add Location"

Consider additional "Photo Albums," maybe including photos from customer locations, especially for separate products, services or initiatives, such as pro bono work your company does.

- It may be that we want each product, service or application area to have a page, paralleling the Titles in the Menu of the website.

We need to make sure we add a text to every image or video, correctly identifying it for the benefit of visitors.

- Correct product name

- Correct Application name

- Customer, if permitted and to your company's advantage

- Current offerings, profitable items

Tags: Facebook Guidelines, Facebook Video, Company Facebook Page, Company Facebook Pages

Blog Post Guidelines - The Secret Sauce

jimcaruso — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 04:56:13 +0000

Note: This is really an internal document, but I felt it might be helpful to you. This outlines what goes into a blog post for the agency. Since, we build websites, we know that how and what you write is a critical success factor (CSF) for helping your readers.

GOAL:

We want MediaFirst.net to get high Google search ranking (top 10) for the terms used by buyers of our services, these terms include the singular and plural, long and short forms of phrases that describe our firm, such as: "PR Agency," "Public Relations Firms," or "Tech PR Company." Note that these phrases end in "Agency," "Firm," and "Company."

We want to be known as a source of services for PR, Marketing, Social Media, and Inbound Marketing (Online Marketing).

There are a great number of keyword phrases that we target, which includes the "long-tail" keyword phrases that buyers might use to find MediaFirst, such as "Digital Agency," "Digital PR Firm," "Local Marketing Company," "Social Media Marketing Agency," and "Internet Marketing Company."

TARGET

AUDIENCE:

Business. Our target client is a privately-owned corporation or business from small business to medium-sized corporation.

We target an audience, readers, who are corporate executives, business owners, marketing directors and staff, public relations professionals, or those involved in social media.

BLOG POST

TITLE:

I offer a suggested title. You have the option of offering an alternate title that employs a keyword or keywords. If you chose to write this, place this at the beginning of the piece, labeled "TITLE," if needed for clarity.

KEYWORDS:

I supply 10 keywords. I prefer that you use all 10. Place the keywords that you used at the end of the piece, labeled as "KEYWORDS:..."

SUMMARY (META DESCRIPTION FOR GOOGLE):

Please include a Meta Description of 150 characters or less. This is for the "Meta Description" that displays when the article shows up in web search, such as a Google search result. 150 Place this at the end of the piece labeled as "META: ..."

DENSITY:

I request that in your writing that you attain a Keyword Density of greater than five percent [ > 5%]. Keyword density increases as you use each and every keyword, particularly including them in both the body of the piece and any title, subtitles, or bullet point lists.

REFERENCE

Buyer Keywords:

We especially want to get high search ranking for what I call "buyer keywords," which are the search phrases used by prospective customers trying to find a company like MediaFirst.

Social Networks:

The primary social media networks should be: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Flickr & YouTube.

Tags: Blog Post Guidelines, Secret Sauce, Google Search Ranking, PR Agency, Public Relations Firms, Tech PR Company, Audience, Keywords, Social Networks

B2B Marketing Benefits From A Consistent Program Of Press Releases

jimcaruso — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 20:08:15 +0000

B2B marketing efforts benefit from a stream of Press Releases, issued at least monthly. Readers see your press release, a.k.a. news release, in many media outlets: online, in print, on tablets, and formatted for mobile devices. Social networks and social media tools leverage the distribution of press releases on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and on social bookmarking websites, such as Deleicious.com, StubleUpon.com, Digg.com, Reddit.com, etc. With MediaFirst as your PR firm, know that we leverage these for your.

Press Releases continue to be a valuable, credible source of news for readers and an important, visible outlet of audience engagement for companies. A press release, well-written by a PR company like MediaFirst, lets you tell your story in bite-sized, focused morsels.

A consistent program of press releases allows your to determine how your firm is perceived and shape that perception. A press release can cover a.) a new customer, b.) a new or expanded alliance partnership, c.) the hiring of key staff, d.) sales promotions or new pricing, e.) new or expanded company locations, f.) any new company initiative, g.) new or expanded product or service offerings, h.) vertical industry offerings or practice areas, i.) awards won by the firm or key staff, j.) certifications that your company earns, k.) suppliers to your company, l.) a survey and the insightful results, m.) company growth, n,) job openings, etc. In addition, our PR Agency Clients use press releases to highlight an M.) industry issue or even spark controversy.

Here is how our PR Agency looks at the different parts of a press release:

Headlines Draw Readers To Your Story
Sub-Headlines Let You Give Spicy Details
The Opening Sentence Frames The News Value Of The Release & Your Firm
News Release Content Serves All The Targeted Audiences
Customer & Partner Quotes Provide Third-Party Endorsement
Your Quote Provides Reporters With An Instant Interview
About Paragraph Highlights Your Firm's Industry Importance
Media Contacts Respond Quickly & Efficiently To Reporters & Editors

Keywords:

Press Release
News Release
Public Relations campaign
PR campaign
PR Agency
PR Firm
PR Company

Jim Caruso Speaking On: Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), and Inbound Marketing

jimcaruso — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 01:05:48 +0000

Jim Caruso, CEO of MediaFirst, at the Atlanta Drupal User's Group

Overview of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), and Inbound Marketing

The content includes an overview of search engine optimization (SEO), conversion rate optimization (CRO), and Inbound Marketing. The presentation includes best practices in SEO, search engine marketing (SEM), content, traffic, and lead generation from a website. Supporting materials came from Volacci, Hubspot, and the specific experience of MediaFirst.

Link-building To Boost Your Page Rank & Highlight Your Expertise: Example Clean Air America's Welding Smoke Removal

jimcaruso — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 15:11:11 +0000

We recently built a new website for Clean Air America to improve the navigation for visitors and meet a number of expectations for today's web visitor.

Part of this process is improving awareness of the firm and make the site more searchable on the web. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the discipline and one technique is to get other website to link to your site. Here, MediaFirst links to Clean Air's website.

We mention key terms on their website and show an image, all of which reference the website of Clean Air America.

We picked ten top terms relating to removing weld smoke, oil smoke, and oil mist. These terms are described in this blog post.

Robotic Welding

Manual Welding

Resistance Welding, Spot Welding

Oil Mist Removal & Oil Smoke Removal

Laser Cutting Dust Collection

Laser Welding Smoke Removal

Plasma Cutting Dust Collection

Vehicle Exhaust Fumes

Dust Collection

Why does this work? Because MediaFirst.net has been around for a long time, which adds to its credibility. By linking or pointing to Clean-Air.com, we are endorsing the value and credibility of Clean Air America in its business of welding smoke removal and oil mist removal for industrial applications. Clean Air has installed systems in hundreds of welding training facilities around the country and in industrial manufacturing locations in North America and South America. These include robotic welding manufacturing lines that are serveral hundred feet long, covered by an enormous welding hood.

Best Practices for Hosting Your Drupal Site - Panel Discussion - Moderator Tim Dorr

jimcaruso — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 21:57:55 +0000

Best Practices for Hosting Your Drupal Site - Panel Discussion - Moderator Tim Dorr

I offer a review of Drupal hosting and performance improvements, including OpCode cache, such as APC; standard Drupal caching via the Boost module, CDN - Content Distribution Networks, and MySQL optimization via InnoDB rather than MyISAM. Jim Caruso

Archive.org lists 110 downloads!

Are You LinkedIn? Leverage Professional Contacts Via The LinkedIn Social Network, LinkedIn Groups & LinkedIn Personal Profile

jimcaruso — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 14:10:10 +0000

LinkedIn has many tools beginning with a personal profile extending to a company profile and beyond that the ability to connect to many linked in groups. For professionals in the marketplace, a LinkedIn profile is a must. Potential employers, your current clients, prospective clients, and even coworkers expect to find you on LinkedIn and understand your professional qualifications from what you've listed in your profile.

LinkedIn Groups

You may belong to up to 50 LinkedIn groups. You may also create those groups and be the group owner yourself. Owning or participating in a LinkedIn group allows you to connect with many people may be thousands of people in your target audience.

Your Personal LinkedIn Profile

But to effectively use groups, you must effectively use your personal or individual profile. The personal profile should always include a photograph. A photograph shouldn't be necessary but it matters. Newer users and students just graduating often have too many social network profiles. You should prepare to have many profiles business profiles and personal profiles. Every personal profile needs a photograph.

Photograph, Social Networks, Job History, Etc.

Clearly, the professional profile deserves a professional photograph. Beyond the photograph, social networking profiles allow you to show a status. On LinkedIn, that's that this might be a tweet, which is a 140 character comment distributed through twitter. Deeper in your profile, is your individual value proposition what you contribute to your team or your company or your customer. Because LinkedIn generates lots of its revenue from human resources and employment, a LinkedIn profile looks a lot like a resume. Therefore, your LinkedIn profile can include a job history similar to how you might list it on your resume. Your LinkedIn profile can show or not show the LinkedIn groups to which you belong. It may also display your twitter handle and even all your tweets were simply those that you choose to display on LinkedIn. On both your individual profile and your company profile you can post blog posts from your blog. Applications on LinkedIn can also display presentations, blog posts, book recommendations, events that you plan to attend, etc.

If You Are A Student Or Recent Graduate, Make Your LinkedIn Profile Now

Each social network, has its own user base which represents a portion of your target audience and prospective customers. I recommend it to every student to create a LinkedIn profile. As you get closer to graduation he should complete your profile, which means to fill it with complete information. Another strong point of LinkedIn, is the ability to capture recommendations. Former clients, customers, managers, employers, and even coworkers can serve as sources of recommendations.

Company Profiles, LinkedIn Groups & LinkedIn Recommendations Create Online References For Your Firm

As you get more sophisticated about LinkedIn, not only do you complete your individual profile or your personal profile, but you complete your company profile which now allows you to include the products and services offered by your firm. LinkedIn groups extend your reach another step deeper into this broad marketplace and a large number of professional connections. Recommendations are a source of 3rd party endorsement of you and of your work.

Make certain that each person in your organization has a complete LinkedIn profile that includes an appropriate photograph and contact information including telephone number and e-mail address.

Need Some LinkedIn Advice For Your Company & Staff, Give MediaFirst A Call

If you need help driving your organization to complete its LinkedIn profiles and online presence, give us a call at MediaFirst at 770.642.2080 or find us online at http://mediafirst.net.

B2B Blog Marketing Engages Your Audience Directly And With The Extended Reach Of Social Media Marketing

jimcaruso — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 15:11:11 +0000

Blogging is becoming a critical path to B2B Marketing success. Blogs let you speak directly to your audiences of prospective customers. B2B Social Media extends the reach of your blog across the industry via LinkedIn and Twitter. LinkedIn Groups provide a forum to publish your blog posts. These blog posts generate inquiries and sales leads.

Make Blogs Easy To Share & Consume And Add CTAs

Blogs allow your audience to consume blog content directly, by an RSS feed, or via social sharing through Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other networks.

Important features of modern blogs are social sharing tools, RSS feeds (subscribe buttons), tags (taxonomy), and an ability to leave a comment and interact with the author and other readers. Blog content can be enhanced with links to related content or drive lead generation through a Call-To-Action (CTA).

Make Blog Posts Easier On The Reader & You

Make it easier on yourself and your audience by bite-sized blog posts, maybe 300 - 400 words.

You need some sub-healines, H2, H3, H4, ... to break up the copy and highlight keywords in the Blog post. The Keywords from the blog post should be in the title and/or subtitles

Bullets - Bulleted Lists: These, again, break text copy up into more readable segments and draw the reader down through the text. They are also easier to read and make the mass of text seem less daunting.

Make B2B Blog Marketing Part Of Your Broader, Marketing Mix

B2B Blog Marketing is a critical component of B2B Marketing, which can also include activities, such as B2B Branding, B2B Award Marketing, , B2B Content Marketing, B2B Conversions Marketing, B2B Media Relations, B2B Online Marketing, B2B Press Release Marketing, and B2B Social Media Marketing.

B2B Award Marketing: Awards and Speaking Engagements Are Leveraged By Media Relations

jimcaruso — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 15:05:06 +0000

Winning awards gives your firm additional industry credibility via the third-party endorsement of the publications, trade shows, associations, and organizations that give awards.

B2B Award Marketing is best when you consider the benefit of making it part of a comprehensive B2B Marketing program that includes B2B Branding, B2B Blog Marketing, B2B Content Marketing, B2B Conversions Marketing, B2B Media Relations, B2B Online Marketing, B2B Press Release Marketing, and B2B Social Media Marketing.

Awards and Speaking Engagements are often leveraged by Media Relations because many publications have award opportunities and are affiliated with conferences and trade shows that provide speaking engagement opportunities.

All these techniques prove your value and credibility in front of your targeted audiences with the thrid-party endoresement of the media.

B2B Article Marketing works well in a complete program of B2B Marketing

jimcaruso — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 15:01:02 +0000

B2B Marketing via B2B Article Marketing has two facets:

a.) The first is that more and more publications are accepting bylined articles from B2B Companies. In part, this reduces the cost of content for publishers, whether online, email newsletters, or print. magazines. This is part of B2B Media Relations and involves pitching a story idea to the editor, who assigns the story to you.

A bylined article, one with your name on it, runs from approximately 900 - 1500 words. We pitch the idea for you and can ghost write the piece or simply help with editing. These allow you to help the audience and prove your expertise. B2B Social Media can broaden the reach of these articles.

b.) SEO Articles are used in link-building campaigns. These articles contain keywords that link back to specific pages on your website. The content is submitted to websites that accept this type of content and provide links back to your business website.

B2B Article Marketing works well in a complete program of B2B Marketing that includes B2B Branding, B2B Award Marketing, B2B Blog Marketing, B2B Content Marketing, B2B Conversions Marketing, B2B Media Relations, B2B Online Marketing, B2B Press Release Marketing, and B2B Social Media Marketing.

B2B Branding Delivers Brand Experience: Tools Include Blog Marketing, Content Marketing, Media Relations & Social Media

jimcaruso — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 14:59:01 +0000

http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" foaf="http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/" rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#" user="http://mediafirst.net/rdf/schema/user#" vocabulary="http://mediafirst.net/rdf/schema/vocabulary#">B2B Branding begins with an understanding of the experience, Brand Experience, that you wish your customers to have when they do business with you. Understand and shape the experience of your customer, whether consuming your product, engaging on LinkedIn, dealing with your customer service department or any other interaction with your firm.

B2B Branding is a component of the B2B Marketing program that reaches out and influences customer experience via customer service, but even via B2B Media Relations and follower engagement on B2B Social Media.

Related activities include: B2B Marketing, B2B Branding, B2B Award Marketing, B2B Blog Marketing, B2B Content Marketing, B2B Conversions Marketing, B2B Media Relations, B2B Online Marketing, B2B Press Release Marketing, and B2B Social Media Marketing.

Customer Experience, Brand Experience / Why Speed & Utility Matter To Mobile Users

jimcaruso — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 06:38:32 +0000

I wrote a blog post about Google Chrome and how I like rapid response time and how I see speed as the ultimate differentiator online.

Here is an update on my thoughts:

Speed In Browsers Is Still King

It is almost two years later and it is still true that speed dominates. I think Windows lost its way with bloatware and carp ware, unwanted software that is loaded on new consumer PCs and with the poor compatibility and experience of users with Internet Explorer.

Smart Phones Now Plagued With Bloatware

Unfortunately, smart phones are now the ones with with bloatware and carp ware installed and some can't be uninstalled. Even a new Verizon smartphone from HTC and running Google's Android operating system has applications that I want to remove. For this reason, I see Apple's iPhone continuing to give users a better experience.

Apple's Ecosystem Of Utility & Ease Set The Bar

Note that Apple has not needed to win the PC market share competition to create a pleasing and useful ecosystem of applications and utility that make a great customer experience.

Customer Experience Is Brand Experience

Since Customer Experience is Brand Experience, this bodes well for Apple and badly for other smartphone suppliers that install applications without concern for user experience.

Maybe Google Bought Motorola To Control Brand Experience As Mobile Growth Continues

If I bought another Google phone, it would be branded Google, which be the best explanation for Google's purchase of Motorola.

B2B Marketing Best With Branding, Awards, Blog Marketing, Content Marketing, Conversions, Media Relations & Social Media

jimcaruso — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 14:49:51 +0000

B2B Marketing is the complete package of marketing activities that creates awareness of your company in your B2B Market. A second step is to guide prospective customers to learn more about your firm and take steps, via a Marketing Lead Nurturing Program, to become customers or clients of your company.

In today's markets, it is increasingly necessary to cover all the bases of marketing, to implement a wider and more diverse set of marketing activities that together are reinforcing.

An example of this is your website, which should have regular updated content, and social sharing tools that allow your firm's information to be shared across a range of social media networks.

Blogs are excellent for this content marketing and social sharing. Blogs are ways to have a consistent program of regular, new content added to your website. You and any visitors to your website can share the blog content to social networks, such as LinkedIn, the many LinkedIn groups, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.

In total, a good B2B Marketing program has a marketing mix that includes B2B Media Relations and B2B Social Media initiatives.

B2B Marketing is best when you consider the potential benefits of adding B2B Marketing, B2B Branding, B2B Award Marketing, B2B Blog Marketing, B2B Content Marketing, B2B Conversions Marketing, B2B Media Relations, B2B Online Marketing, B2B Press Release Marketing, and B2B Social Media Marketing.

Atlanta B2B Marketing Organizations For Content Marketing, Social Media, Inbound Marketing, Website Design & Lead Generation

jimcaruso — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 20:08:39 +0000

Here is a list of Atlanta B2B Marketing Organizations For Content Marketing, Social Media, Inbound Marketing, & Lead Generation.

AiMA - Atlanta Interactive Marketing Association

Atlanta Content Strategy Group

BMA - Business Marketing Association, Atlanta

Hubspot Users' Group - Atlanta

Bonus: Here are a few more place to find me discussing online marketing, online advertising, technology marketing, consumer social media, and web technologies:

AAC - Atlanta Ad Club

ADUG - Atlanta Drupal Users Group

TAG - Technology Association of Georgia

DMA - Direct Marketing Association Atlanta

MIT Enterprise Forum of Atlanta

You can learn a lot about Atlanta area marketing events by joining and monitoring social media networks, such as Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. On Twitter, look for the hashtag #ATLtweet.

We are considering hosting some less formal, lunch roundtable discussions about local marketing lead generation, along with Manuel Enrique "QuiQue" Lopez of Panorama Press Marketing. They've helped companies grow from Atlanta to national via solid local marketing tactics. Call me, Jim Caruso, at 404.788.0188 to join the discussion.

LinkedIn Groups: Creating Group Rules

jimcaruso — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 20:39:57 +0000

Today, I needed to craft some rules for a LinkedIn Group. Here they are shown below.

A primary source is these tips in a Downloadable Template from Patrick O'Keefe.

Here is a link to the group, Atlanta Soccer Friends, on LinkedIn.

Managing Your Online Community / Online Forum.

LinkedIn is for business. Soccer is for fun. The intent of the group is to expand business and soccer connections for fun and business benefit. Please do not post any item that might not be welcome in this group.

Feel free to post about teams needing players, players needing teams, new teams, new leagues, places to play game or find a scrimmage. You may brag about the game your team won, even if it is Tottenham Hotspurs.

Post about business opportunities or jobs that might be of interest to the group.

If you are a soccer player looking for a job, feel free to post you qualifications and a link to your LinkedIn profile. Oh yeah, make sure your LinkedIn profile has a photo, contact information (email and phone), etc.

LinkedIn is used by business professionals for business connections, partnering, hiring, and job search.

If the spam police are looking for you on the internet, your spam is probably not welcome here either.

Rules of the moment:
1.) Post an item only once
2.) Post useful items.
3.) Don't be overwhelming. Yeah, we want to hear from you, but not every ten minutes.
4.) Ask before posting an advertisement.
5.) Don't sell snake oil, "personal" services, or how you can make millions from your couch.
6.) Be respectful.
7.) Respect privacy, including your own, such as phone numbers, home addresses, etc.
8.) I'm sure LinkedIn has a policy against vulgar language, so we'll leave it there.
9.) Political and religious discussions are discouraged.
10.) Do not post copyrighted materials, Typically, you may link to these.
11.) Only have one LinkedIn profile.
12.) Be fun, friendly and inviting.
13.) Freedom of speech rights do not extend to privately owned websites.
14.) We reserve the right to remover you from the group and to edit or remove any content without warning.
15.) These guidelines are subject to change at any time without notice.

Do you have a question about our User Guidelines or anything else? Do you have a suggestion? Do you want to offer some feedback? Or are you experiencing some trouble with the site? Well, no matter what it is, please do not hesitate to contact us and we will be glad to help in any way that we can.

Thank you for visiting Atlanta Soccer Friends group.

Adapted from / Credit to Patrick O'Keefe, author of:
"Managing Online Forums: Everything You Need to Know to Create and Run Successful Community Discussion Boards."

LinkedIn Group, LinkedIn Groups, Group Rules, Patrick O'Keefe, Managing Online Forums, Online Forums, Online Community, Online Communities, Community Discussion Boards, LinkedIn

Update - Business Blogging: Be A Top Blogger To Attract Visitors & Reach Your Audience

jimcaruso — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 19:06:57 +0000

Business Blogging, Blog Content, Blogger Relations, Blog Marketing, & Guest Blogging

Update: I promised an update on Business Blogging, Blog Content, Blogger Relations, Blog Marketing, & Guest Blogging.

Business Blogging

Business blogging enables you to put forward your ideas about your market and what prospective customers should consider as important. For our clients, we blog and write press releases about industry issues that customers come up against every day. Business blogs let you discuss what is important to your customers and take a stand.

Often, it is products and services from your company that help your customers solve their problems and overcome industry concerns, such as regulation, changing consumer preference, new expectations that increase competitive pressures, etc.

One of our clients takes a position on how companies should prepare for regional disasters, when doing strategic supply chain planning. They have blogged, written bylined articles, and issued press releases that have gained national attention, such as in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal.

Blog Content

Blog content can be any discussion or presentation of information helpful or interesting to your audience. You can review a book, discuss a trade show or conference, take a stand on an industry issue, guide readers to better use resources, provide a summary of quick tips, give a detailed list of how-to instructions, etc.

What is important is that it be useful to the reader. When the reader finds it useful, funny, or interesting, they may forward it to friends via social media sharing tools that are becoming common on websites. This social sharing is called "Social Publishing" by Acquia, a top provider of services and tools for managing websites built on the Drupal content management system (CMS).

Blogger Relations

Blogger relations is keeping connected or connecting with bloggers that blog about your market. It is an extension of media relations that developed as blogging and bloggers became influential and authentic sources of news and commentary.

First, we gather information or research who are the bloggers influencing your market and your target customers. Then, we understand whether and how they are willing to learn about industry trends and your position on industry issues. We create contact plans, mini case studies, and short spokesperson bios that paint a picture of how we can help them do their job and gain better insight into market forces and the issues that are changing how companies must do business to be successful. For MediaFirst, we treat bloggers and reporters as though they were our customer. We help them be more successful by helping them get accurate, helpful, non-spammy information on what is important, newsworthy, and changing.

Blog Marketing

Blogging is an effective way to inform, train, and engage your customers. MailChimp does this in a great fashion via useful blog posts, consistent updates on product features and functionality, t-shirt and shwag give-aways, and presence in local communities and major trade show events.

Good business blogs are useful and often entertaining.

Guest Blogging

Guest blogging on other websites can cross-sell your capabilities on partner websites. Inviting Guest Bloggers to post on your website serves the same purpose for you and offers your audience a fresh face and fresh perspective on industry topics.

Bonus: Social Media & Blogs

Blog posts can go viral if your post hits the spot for utility or fun. Social Media, Social Networks, and Social Sharing extend the reach of you blog across your contacts, customers, friends, and advocates.

As soon as I get a chance, I'm going to blog about: Business Blogging, Blog Content, Blogger Relations, Blog Marketing, & Guest Blogging.

In the mean time, I hope to get listed here: Top B2B Marketing and Sales Blogs

Collaboration Is The Frontier Of Business Opportunity Today

jimcaruso — Mon, 16 May 2011 20:17:35 +0000

Collaborating is the frontier of business opportunity today. The

right, well-executed alliance drives new global competitiveness.

Partnership opportunities represent tens of millions in net, new

revenues for successful expansion and growth. However, alliances

established with great fanfare frequently lack critical success

factors, such as clear goals, defined methodology, proper staffing,

meaningful metrics, and an ingrained process for execution and

continual improvement.

Partner strategy identifies focus areas and develops complementary

initiatives that drive towards clear goals, such as market share for

the targeted sector. To attain these strategic goals, however,

alliances must embed rigorous, tactical, and cross-organizational

efforts at the front line, with customer-facing initiatives.

Does Content Marketing Rival Advertising? /via @Marketo

jimcaruso — Fri, 13 May 2011 14:29:42 +0000

Can Content Marketing Outperform Advertising?

Business-To-Business (B2B) firms rely upon content marketing to draw prospects via organic search and to convert these to leads online. Content marketing, which is perceived as free, is becoming an ever more important aspect of the overall marketing effort.

Marketo offers this infographic, a Content Marketing Cheat Sheet, with a look at the state of content marketing versus advertising. Sources include MarketingProfs and Junta42

DCMI and the FOAF Project announce a cooperation agreement

jimcaruso — Fri, 13 May 2011 14:01:36 +0000

Note: Recent announcement ... http://dublincore.org/documents/dcmi-foaf/

Description of Document: This agreement outlines specific measures to be undertaken in cooperation between DCMI and the FOAF Project -- measures aimed primarily at reinforcing the long-term viability of the FOAF Vocabulary by addressing the risks inherent with having a single point of failure. The two organizations also see this cooperation as an opportunity for better integrating their vocabularies with alignments -- mutually declared mappings between semantically overlapping terms -- and for promoting the documentation of best-practice usage patterns in which the two vocabularies are used in combination.

The Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) is an open organization, incorporated in Singapore as a public, not-for-profit Company limited by Guarantee (registration number 200823602C), engaged in the development of interoperable metadata standards that support a broad range of purposes and business models. DCMI is the maintenance organization for the vocabulary DCMI Metadata Terms.

The Friend of a Friend (FOAF) Project aims at creating a Web of machine-readable pages describing people, the links between them, and the things they create and do, using an open, decentralized technology for connecting social Web sites and the people they describe. The FOAF Project is the maintenance organization for the FOAF Vocabulary.

Expert Communities, Alliance Partner Pages & Directory Listings Add Credibility & Boost Organic Search Traffic

jimcaruso — Thu, 05 May 2011 19:24:39 +0000

Expert Communities, Such As SelfGrowth.com, Let You Reach Out To A Wider Audience

SelfGrowth.com is a community website, featuring subject matter experts (SME) across business and life skills. If you want to promote your expertise, submit your listing with details of your capabilities. The site is one of the top websites for visitor and registered community member traffic among all sites build with the Drupal content management system (CMS). The website was built and new features are developed by MediaFirst client Blink Reaction.

Your Alliance Partners Give You A Page To List Your Expertise

Many firms recognize the value of extending sales reach via alliance partner programs. Within the Drupal community, Acquia is known as having a solid partner program. On the Acquia website, partners get a page on which to list industry segments, expertise areas, the countries in which they do business, and body text to describe Drupal development or Drupal services capabilities. On its partner page, Blink Reaction can highlight expertise in enterprise Drupal development and list recent customers and successes, such as the website it built for the 9/11 Memorial.

Find The Right Directories To Make Your Directory Listing For A Local, Business, Or Association Boost

Directory Listings let you submit a link to your website and body text about your organization that ranges from 25 characters up. There are many review websites for your business, such as Yelp.com, known originally for restaurant listings, like for our client, Diesel Pizza. But your local business association or professional organization, also has opportunities for you to list your business. Within the Drupal community, the Drupal Association offers a marketplace, a directory where members can highlight their organization and web development, Search Engine Optimization, Internet Marketing, or related support services. In addition, SEO experts, like Volacci have many directory listing options available.

Call me at 404.788.0188, if you would like to know more or connect personally with one of the companies mentioned here.

Attend DrupalCon: Chicago In March & London In August

jimcaruso — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 06:33:29 +0000

The Drupal Association organizes and funds annual events, for 2011 one is in Europe and one in North America.

This year's annual North American DrupalCon is in Chicago, Illinois,
7-10 March 2011. DrupalCon Chicago will be the best Drupal event ever. To attend DrupalCon Chicago; find out more at http://chicago2011.drupal.org.

The annual European DrupalCon conference will be held in London, England, United Kingdom 21 - 26 August 2011. Discover DrupalCon London at http://london2011.drupal.org.

Facebook Becomes A Communications Platform; Are You Ready?

jimcaruso — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 03:14:16 +0000

Social Networks Eat More Time & Become Our Communications Channels

Do you find friends -- and even business colleagues -- send you messages over Facebook or LinkedIn? Often, these are messages that used to be e-mails, instant messages, text messages, or phone calls. From June 2009 to June 2010, according to a recent Nielsen survey noted on Mashable, we spent 43% more time on social network, such as Facebook. Over the same period, we spent 28% less time on E-mail and 15% less time on Instant Messaging (IM) platforms. Since Facebook just passed 500 million users, it is the king of social networks and is becoming a platform for communications. Even as mobile phone usage continues to grow, 100 million of these mobile phone users are using Facebook for mobile phones each month.

New Tweet Button Shares Via Retweet, Shows Retweet Count, & Promotes 3 Twitter Accounts

jimcaruso — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 15:41:40 +0000

Twitter Goodies: The New Tweet Button

Twitter added a new type of Tweet Button, which is becoming widely deployed by news sites. This button lets visitors to your site share content on Twitter without leaving the Web page. After tweeting, the user is offerred up to three (3) Twitter Accounts to follow, such as the main Twitter Account for your site, an individual's (like yours), or any other. This allows you to promote strategic Twitter accounts while driving traffic to your website.

The buttons are horizontal or vertical with a count, or without a count.

Add up to 3 Twitter Accounts to follow to your button.

Get your code here http://twitter.com/goodies/tweetbutton or use Twitter's Sharing API to create the functionality and style that you want.

Recommend your account and up to two other Twitter accounts for users to follow after they share content from your website.

The first user @jimcaruso is mentioned Tweet

X9YCW6BBKPVA

Twitter Influence and Tracking Tools

jimcaruso — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 22:05:07 +0000

Here is a quick list of Twitter tools, Websites with differing measurements of influence.

Update 8-4-2010: I found these two Twitter visualization tools that I like:

1.) http://isparade.jp This is a Japanese site for Twitter visualizaiton.

2.) http://twittersheep.com TagCloud from the bios of followers.

For real tracking, I like Filtrbox ( http://www.filtrbox.com/ ). Fitrbox has tool to check your influence, http://www.filtrbox.com/twitter.htm ranking you on a scale of 1-10 (10 is highest). Also, you can access this through their API.

Twitter Influence Trackers:

http://www.twitalyzer.com

http://twitter.grader.com

http://www.filtrbox.com/twitter.htm

http://addictomatic.com

http://tweetstats.com

http://twittercounter.com

http://twinfluence.com

http://www.buzzom.com

http://twscore.net

http://friendorfollow.com

http://klout.com

http://topsy.com

http://followerwonk.com

Twitter Activity

http://topsy.com

Twitter Statistics

http://tweetstats.com

twitteranalyzer.com <~ Results not valid

TweetEffect.com <~ Results not valid. Did not even come close to showing which tweets yield new followers or unfollowers.

Tech PR Client Top Ten Requested Traits

jimcaruso — Mon, 03 May 2010 13:00:00 +0000

<p dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" foaf="http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/" rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#" user="http://mediafirst.net/rdf/schema/user#" vocabulary="http://mediafirst.net/rdf/schema/vocabulary#"> Tech PR clients want these top ten traits, which won us praise over many years:

1. Communicate well with me

2. Be competent and experienced, in technology and business

3. Establish good relationships and be a teammate of my staff

4. Demonstrate leadership

5. Be innovative and creative

6. Understand and address my real needs

7. Know and leverage the available resources for best results

8. Complete work on time and within budget

9. Be responsive

10. Do high quality work

ActivityStreams: Open Standard & Specifications For Sharing The Richness Of What We Post On The Web

jimcaruso — Sun, 02 May 2010 18:12:43 +0000

[WARNING] This post is on the uber-geeky side. It relates to open standards for sharing what we do on a Website, such as Twitter, Facebook, Live.com, etc. and feeding that stream of activities into another service (Twitter to Facebook, Live.com to Cliqset, etc). Although some information can be fed from one service to another via RSS or Atom feeds; RSS and Atom do not include the detail-or richness-of the original activty, as one might post post on Foursquare, Gowalla, etc.

This standard effort is progressing nicely with the many persons in the ActivityStreams community, including those able to attend the recent StreamCamp in San Francisco, which I attended.

Here are some resources:

ActivityStreams home at http://ActivityStrea.ms

BEST starting point, the ActivityStreams Wkik

ActivityStreams Output for JimCaruso in JSON

Here is my recent ActivityStream in JSON, courtesy of the guys at Cliqset and via the JSON Formatter & Validator:

VALID

Formatted JSON Data:

{ "title":"Activity Stream of: Jim Caruso", "id":"https://api.cliqset.com/as/v1/user/jimcaruso/posts", "subject":{ "id":"jimcaruso", "displayName":"Jim Caruso", "permaLink":"http://cliqset.com/jimcaruso", "objectType":[ "person" ] }, "generator":{ "permalLink":"http://cliqset.com/", "displayName":"Cliqset" }, "entries":[ { "id":"tag:cliqset.com,2010-05-02:/user/jimcaruso/KMVQ0fITTn8FzAee", "permaLink":"http://cliqset.com/user/jimcaruso/KMVQ0fITTn8FzAee", "postedTime":"2010-05-02T17:03:45.983Z", "title":"jimcaruso posted a bookmark on Delicious", "verb":"http://activitystrea.ms/schema/1.0/post", "actor":{ "id":"http://cliqset.com/user/jimcaruso", "displayName":"Jim Caruso", "permaLink":"http://cliqset.com/user/jimcaruso", "photo":"http://dynamic.cliqset.com/avatar/jimcaruso?s\u003d80", "objectTypes":[ "person" ] }, "object":{ "title":"i-Meet: the worldwide community for people who plan meetings and events", "summary":"In addition to being a vibrant community where one can share, i-Meet is a marketplace where planners can connect, communicate, and receive information that is current, creative and advantageous.", "permaLink":"http://i-meet.com/", "objectTypes":[ "bookmark" ] }, "replies":{ "url":"https://api.cliqset.com/as/v1/activity/KMVQ0fITTn8FzAee/comments", "count":0 }, "serviceProvider":{ "permaLink":"http://delicious.com", "displayName":"delicious", "icon":"http://cliqset-services.s3.amazonaws.com/delicious.png" } }, { "id":"tag:cliqset.com,2010-05-02:/user/jimcaruso/dY2igiJDmvXpNgee", "permaLink":"http://cliqset.com/user/jimcaruso/dY2igiJDmvXpNgee", "postedTime":"2010-05-02T17:03:43.157Z", "title":"jimcaruso posted a bookmark on Delicious", "verb":"http://activitystrea.ms/schema/1.0/post", "actor":{ "id":"http://cliqset.com/user/jimcaruso", "displayName":"Jim Caruso", "permaLink":"http://cliqset.com/user/jimcaruso", "photo":"http://dynamic.cliqset.com/avatar/jimcaruso?s\u003d80", "objectTypes":[ "person" ] }, "object":{ "title":"StarCite | Meeting Management \u0026 Event Registration Management", "summary":"We provide Web-based solutions that help buyers and suppliers strategically manage corporate meetings and events.", "permaLink":"http://www.starcite.com/", "objectTypes":[ "bookmark" ] }, "replies":{ "url":"https://api.cliqset.com/as/v1/activity/dY2igiJDmvXpNgee/comments", "count":0 }, "serviceProvider":{ "permaLink":"http://delicious.com", "displayName":"delicious", "icon":"http://cliqset-services.s3.amazonaws.com/delicious.png" } }, { "id":"http://twitter.com/jimcaruso/statuses/13224250027", "permaLink":"http://cliqset.com/user/jimcaruso/MTMyMjQyNTAwMjce", "postedTime":"2010-05-02T03:19:05.152Z", "title":"jimcaruso shared : leenjones posted a note on Twitter", "verb":"http://activitystrea.ms/schema/1.0/share", "actor":{ "id":"http://cliqset.com/user/jimcaruso", "displayName":"Jim Caruso", "permaLink":"http://cliqset.com/user/jimcaruso", "photo":"http://dynamic.cliqset.com/avatar/jimcaruso?s\u003d80", "objectTypes":[ "person" ] }, "object":{ "content":"Are you an Atlantan writer or marketer? Want to grow into content strategy? I\u0027m giving a practical workshop May 27. http://contentstrategy101.eventbrite.com/", "objectTypes":[ "note" ] }, "replies":{ "url":"https://api.cliqset.com/as/v1/activity/MTMyMjQyNTAwMjce/comments", "count":0 }, "serviceProvider":{ "permaLink":"http://twitter.com", "displayName":"twitter", "icon":"http://cliqset-services.s3.amazonaws.com/twitter.png" } }, { "id":"http://twitter.com/jimcaruso/statuses/13207595745", "permaLink":"http://cliqset.com/user/jimcaruso/MTMyMDc1OTU3NDUe", "postedTime":"2010-05-01T20:44:05.512Z", "title":"jimcaruso posted a note on Twitter", "verb":"http://activitystrea.ms/schema/1.0/post", "actor":{ "id":"http://cliqset.com/user/jimcaruso", "displayName":"Jim Caruso", "permaLink":"http://cliqset.com/user/jimcaruso", "photo":"http://dynamic.cliqset.com/avatar/jimcaruso?s\u003d80", "objectTypes":[ "person" ] }, "object":{ "content":"RT @mashable Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Captured by NASA Satellite [PICS] http://mashable.com/2010/04/30/gulf-of-mexico-oil-spill/ #nasa #oil-spill #satellite", "objectTypes":[ "note" ] }, "replies":{ "url":"https://api.cliqset.com/as/v1/activity/MTMyMDc1OTU3NDUe/comments", "count":0 }, "serviceProvider":{ "permaLink":"http://twitter.com", "displayName":"twitter", "icon":"http://cliqset-services.s3.amazonaws.com/twitter.png" } }, { "id":"http://twitter.com/jimcaruso/statuses/13199701938", "permaLink":"http://cliqset.com/user/jimcaruso/MTMxOTk3MDE5Mzge", "postedTime":"2010-05-01T17:31:19.469Z", "title":"jimcaruso posted a note on Twitter", "verb":"http://activitystrea.ms/schema/1.0/post", "actor":{ "id":"http://cliqset.com/user/jimcaruso", "displayName":"Jim Caruso", "permaLink":"http://cliqset.com/user/jimcaruso", "photo":"http://dynamic.cliqset.com/avatar/jimcaruso?s\u003d80", "objectTypes":[ "person" ] }, "object":{ "content":"Video from the Likeminds Conference /via @ChrisBrogan http://www.chrisbrogan.com/video-from-the-likeminds-conference/", "objectTypes":[ "note" ] }, "replies":{ "url":"https://api.cliqset.com/as/v1/activity/MTMxOTk3MDE5Mzge/comments", "count":0 }, "serviceProvider":{ "permaLink":"http://twitter.com", "displayName":"twitter", "icon":"http://cliqset-services.s3.amazonaws.com/twitter.png" } }, { "id":"http://twitter.com/jimcaruso/statuses/13199314127", "permaLink":"http://cliqset.com/user/jimcaruso/MTMxOTkzMTQxMjce", "postedTime":"2010-05-01T17:22:42.035Z", "title":"jimcaruso posted a note on Twitter", "verb":"http://activitystrea.ms/schema/1.0/post", "actor":{ "id":"http://cliqset.com/user/jimcaruso", "displayName":"Jim Caruso", "permaLink":"http://cliqset.com/user/jimcaruso", "photo":"http://dynamic.cliqset.com/avatar/jimcaruso?s\u003d80", "objectTypes":[ "person" ] }, "object":{ "content":"Rethink Your Web Presence http://www.chrisbrogan.com/rethink-your-web-presence/", "objectTypes":[ "note" ] }, "replies":{ "url":"https://api.cliqset.com/as/v1/activity/MTMxOTkzMTQxMjce/comments", "count":0 }, "serviceProvider":{ "permaLink":"http://twitter.com", "displayName":"twitter", "icon":"http://cliqset-services.s3.amazonaws.com/twitter.png" } }, { "id":"http://twitter.com/jimcaruso/statuses/13198756040", "permaLink":"http://cliqset.com/user/jimcaruso/MTMxOTg3NTYwNDAe", "postedTime":"2010-05-01T17:10:34.995Z", "title":"jimcaruso posted a note on Twitter", "verb":"http://activitystrea.ms/schema/1.0/post", "actor":{ "id":"http://cliqset.com/user/jimcaruso", "displayName":"Jim Caruso", "permaLink":"http://cliqset.com/user/jimcaruso", "photo":"http://dynamic.cliqset.com/avatar/jimcaruso?s\u003d80", "objectTypes":[ "person" ] }, "object":{ "content":"RT @techcrunch Advice From Founders Who Bootstrapped Their Way to Success http://techcrunch.com/2010/05/01/advice-from-founders-who-bootstrapped-their-way-to-success-2/", "objectTypes":[ "note" ] }, "replies":{ "url":"https://api.cliqset.com/as/v1/activity/MTMxOTg3NTYwNDAe/comments", "count":0 }, "serviceProvider":{ "permaLink":"http://twitter.com", "displayName":"twitter", "icon":"http://cliqset-services.s3.amazonaws.com/twitter.png" } }, { "id":"http://twitter.com/jimcaruso/statuses/13198377751", "permaLink":"http://cliqset.com/user/jimcaruso/MTMxOTgzNzc3NTEe", "postedTime":"2010-05-01T17:02:30.851Z", "title":"jimcaruso posted a note on Twitter", "verb":"http://activitystrea.ms/schema/1.0/post", "actor":{ "id":"http://cliqset.com/user/jimcaruso", "displayName":"Jim Caruso", "permaLink":"http://cliqset.com/user/jimcaruso", "photo":"http://dynamic.cliqset.com/avatar/jimcaruso?s\u003d80", "objectTypes":[ "person" ] }, "object":{ "content":"RT @techcrunch H.264 Already Won?Makes Up 66 Percent Of Web Videos http://techcrunch.com/2010/05/01/h-264-66-percent-web-video/", "objectTypes":[ "note" ] }, "replies":{ "url":"https://api.cliqset.com/as/v1/activity/MTMxOTgzNzc3NTEe/comments", "count":0 }, "serviceProvider":{ "permaLink":"http://twitter.com", "displayName":"twitter", "icon":"http://cliqset-services.s3.amazonaws.com/twitter.png" } }, { "id":"http://twitter.com/jimcaruso/statuses/13175829015", "permaLink":"http://cliqset.com/user/jimcaruso/MTMxNzU4MjkwMTUe", "postedTime":"2010-05-01T06:53:07.543Z", "title":"jimcaruso posted a note on Twitter", "verb":"http://activitystrea.ms/schema/1.0/post", "actor":{ "id":"http://cliqset.com/user/jimcaruso", "displayName":"Jim Caruso", "permaLink":"http://cliqset.com/user/jimcaruso", "photo":"http://dynamic.cliqset.com/avatar/jimcaruso?s\u003d80", "objectTypes":[ "person" ] }, "object":{ "content":"Sustained Efforts Deliver Best High Tech PR Results http://mediafirst.net/blog/sustained-efforts-deliver-best-high-tech-pr-results?utm_source\u003dfeedburner\u0026utm_medium\u003dtwitter\u0026utm_campaign\u003dFeed%3A+mediafirst%2FEGxM+%28Technology%2C+Web%2C+Marketing%2C+Media+%26+PR+Blog+of+Jim+Caruso%29", "objectTypes":[ "note" ] }, "replies":{ "url":"https://api.cliqset.com/as/v1/activity/MTMxNzU4MjkwMTUe/comments", "count":0 }, "serviceProvider":{ "permaLink":"http://twitter.com", "displayName":"twitter", "icon":"http://cliqset-services.s3.amazonaws.com/twitter.png" } }, { "id":"http://twitter.com/jimcaruso/statuses/13162523623", "permaLink":"http://cliqset.com/user/jimcaruso/MTMxNjI1MjM2MjMe", "postedTime":"2010-05-01T01:40:56.098Z", "title":"jimcaruso shared : drupalgardens posted a note on Twitter", "verb":"http://activitystrea.ms/schema/1.0/share", "actor":{ "id":"http://cliqset.com/user/jimcaruso", "displayName":"Jim Caruso", "permaLink":"http://cliqset.com/user/jimcaruso", "photo":"http://dynamic.cliqset.com/avatar/jimcaruso?s\u003d80", "objectTypes":[ "person" ] }, "object":{ "content":"RT @acquia: Blog Post: How Acquia Keeps aHEAD of #Drupal 7 http://acquia.com/blog/how-acquia-keeps-ahead-drupal-7 (via @JacobSingh)", "objectTypes":[ "note" ] }, "replies":{ "url":"https://api.cliqset.com/as/v1/activity/MTMxNjI1MjM2MjMe/comments", "count":0 }, "serviceProvider":{ "permaLink":"http://twitter.com", "displayName":"twitter", "icon":"http://cliqset-services.s3.amazonaws.com/twitter.png" } }, { "id":"http://twitter.com/jimcaruso/statuses/13162435647", "permaLink":"http://cliqset.com/user/jimcaruso/MTMxNjI0MzU2NDce", "postedTime":"2010-05-01T01:39:12.947Z", "title":"jimcaruso shared : Volacci posted a note on Twitter", "verb":"http://activitystrea.ms/schema/1.0/share", "actor":{ "id":"http://cliqset.com/user/jimcaruso", "displayName":"Jim Caruso", "permaLink":"http://cliqset.com/user/jimcaruso", "photo":"http://dynamic.cliqset.com/avatar/jimcaruso?s\u003d80", "objectTypes":[ "person" ] }, "object":{ "content":"Instant screencasts for Twitter :: http://screenr.com/ #twitter", "objectTypes":[ "note" ] }, "replies":{ "url":"https://api.cliqset.com/as/v1/activity/MTMxNjI0MzU2NDce/comments", "count":0 }, "serviceProvider":{ "permaLink":"http://twitter.com", "displayName":"twitter", "icon":"http://cliqset-services.s3.amazonaws.com/twitter.png" } }, { "id":"http://twitter.com/jimcaruso/statuses/13150684290", "permaLink":"http://cliqset.com/user/jimcaruso/MTMxNTA2ODQyOTAe", "postedTime":"2010-04-30T21:11:41.044Z", "title":"jimcaruso posted a note on Twitter", "verb":"http://activitystrea.ms/schema/1.0/post", "actor":{ "id":"http://cliqset.com/user/jimcaruso", "displayName":"Jim Caruso", "permaLink":"http://cliqset.com/user/jimcaruso", "photo":"http://dynamic.cliqset.com/avatar/jimcaruso?s\u003d80", "objectTypes":[ "person" ] }, "object":{ "content":"RT @alltop Two words: Muppet cupcakes - Holy Kaw! http://bit.ly/bvOqI8", "objectTypes":[ "note" ] }, "replies":{ "url":"https://api.cliqset.com/as/v1/activity/MTMxNTA2ODQyOTAe/comments", "count":0 }, "serviceProvider":{ "permaLink":"http://twitter.com", "displayName":"twitter", "icon":"http://cliqset-services.s3.amazonaws.com/twitter.png" } }, { "id":"http://twitter.com/jimcaruso/statuses/13150674432", "permaLink":"http://cliqset.com/user/jimcaruso/MTMxNTA2NzQ0MzIe", "postedTime":"2010-04-30T21:11:26.633Z", "title":"jimcaruso posted a note on 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Good Domain Name Choices Are More Memorable & Better Promote Your Firm

jimcaruso — Sat, 01 May 2010 19:16:59 +0000

Good Domain Name Choices Are More Memorable & Better Promote Your Firm

Here are some guidelines to selecting the best domain name.

.com is by far the most recognized and best
Select your exact business name, rather than promote two differing names, a business name and domain name
Avoid hyphens
Shorter, fewer characters, is better

Top Level Domain (TLD): Select .com

DOT COM (.com) is best; it is always what all Web visitors will presume. When domain names are bought or sold, .com is the primary consideration. However, if you are a network operator, .net is most appropriate; if a non-profit, maybe .org; and a school should have .edu.

The Number Of Characters

Easy to remember is best; fewer characters almost always is easier to remember. If you ever chose to sell a domain name, the length is the secondary consideration.

Length Of Words

Which words compose the domain name you are considering? Are they short? Simple? Memorable? Describe your business - or the products or services?

Number of Words

Count the number of words that comprise your domain name. Unless very descriptive, fewer is better.

Does Any Firm Own A Shorter Version?

If you are considering a domain name with more than one word, who owns the other, shorter versions of the name, e.g. the one, two, or three word versions? For example, if you were considering NetworkEquipmentResellers.com - who owns Network.com and NetworkEquipment.com?

Number of Hyphens

Web visitors prefer not to type hyphens and find them hard to remember. We suggest you avoid them, although even large firms, such as Delta Air Lines used delta-air.com before they finally purchased delta.com!

Word Length & Ease Of Spelling

This plays on the length of words in characters, but also the ease with which your targeted Web visitors can accurately spell your domain name.

Industry Value & Terminology

One method of naming is to select a name that describes your product or service. Other possibilities are standard, descriptive industry terminology. Another is to choose the latest of industry buzzwords, which could accelerate name recognition or backfire if the term fall from favor.

Common Usage

Usage relates the semantic relevance to typical online activities, such as "Shopping" or "e-Commerce". Examples include terms, such as "software", "construction", "CPA" or "Biz".

Name Availability

If the name is taken in .COM, you may wish to consider .NET, .BIZ, or .ORG. A name that is already taken in one or more of these TLDs will garner a higher value based on the assumption that this indicates that the name is more desirable.

Web Frequency of Terms

The frequency with which similar domain name appear on the web, containing many of the same words, can confuse Web visitors and dilute the online recognition of your name.

Search Frequency

Look up the frequency with which your domain name appears - as a text search - in search engines, such as Google, Bing/MSN, Yahoo!, etc. Therefore, if your proposed company name and domain were sincerelyyours.com, look up "Sincerely Yours" on search engines and note how much noise - extra unrelated search results - might exist confuse your target audience and prevent them from finding your firm.

Select MediaFirst for a personal touch to domain registration, Websites, and hosting

MediaFirst registered domain names, hosts Websites, and manages e-mail for: UTSpos.com, FutureStarsSoccer.com, JustHappy.com, PeachtreeFlooring.com, PeachyLiving.com, SiaOne.com, and MediaFirst.net.

We offer domain name registration, domain renewal, domain transfer, DNS management, bulk name transfers, and domain name management. We have a limited number of domains for sale. Get your Web address, let us help you find a domain name, set up personalized e-mail, host a Web site, find a design or graphic artist, and build an effective Web presence.

Call Jim at 770/642-2080 for guidance or to acquire a domain name.

MediaFirst offers a range of services to support your Web presence and online marketing efforts. Services include Websites, design, development, hosting, SEO, online advertising, and conversion consulting. Partners include Rackspace, OpenSRS for Domain Name Registration, Acquia for Drupal hosting and support, and Hubspot for inbound marketing methodology and analytics.

Domain Name, OpenSRS, Tucows, Rackspace, Acquia, Hubspot