Today's marketing professionals are buzzing about the many benefits and unique opportunities inherent in social media tools such as Facebook, Youtube, LinkedIn, and blogging.  Among these tools, Twitter stands out as a favorite among online marketers because of its many useful features for the business community.  Whether you are new to the Twitter community or an experienced veteran, these Twitter tools may prove useful in expanding your following and increasing your capacity to network through this social media marketing goldmine. Who Should I Follow? This tool, whoshouldifollow.com, is simply a way to find new Twitter friends.  It allows a member to find out ...

Creating an online presence for yourself or your business is one of the greatest things you can do in today's web-driven world. But getting your website up and running is only part of the job.  Once you've established yourself online, it's time to drive traffic to your website. There are various ways and techniques you can use to increase traffic to your website.  Some more sophisticated than others, some less expensive than others, and of course, some more effective than others.  Below is a list of a few different things you should try to increase traffic to your website. Press Releases:  A ...

With the familiarity of Firefox, yet with a foundation all its own, Flock 2.0, the new social browser, boasts a combination of media tools that is sure to revolutionize your web-browsing experience. Nearly a year after its beta release, the newest version of Flock is making waves as it aims to enhance what the Internet is most known for, the art of connection. With all the energy spent on keeping up with everything that's the latest, why not make your social life easier by streamlining it? Enter Flock. By integrating social services such as MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Picasa, to name ...

Optimization means "the action of finding the best solution." Mathematical programming, or optimization modeling, is a branch of mathematical modeling that is concerned with finding the optimal solution to a problem. Initially, optimization was used as a way to mathematically determine the optimal allocation of scarce resources. The concept has been borrowed by businesspeople to aid decision-making.Optimization has been used in the areas of the manufacturing supply chain, airline revenue yields, and financial investment risk assessment. More recently, the concept is being adopted by marketing. Phrases such as site optimization, search engine optimization, event optimization, and campaign optimization must be familiar. ...

In the past year, podcast audiences grew by 18%.  Videocast audiences grew by 10%.  With the many social marketing tools available today, podcasts continue to grow in popularity and many online marketers are realizing the incredible potential of podcasting as a social media tool.  30% of all internet users have downloaded and listened to a podcast. The term “podcast” can be deceiving.  Listeners do not need an iPod or any kind of music player to listen to a podcast.  Almost half of all podcast listeners download programs and listen directly on their computers.  A videocast is simply a podcast with accompanying ...

User Photograph Galleries:  A Simple and Effective Social Marketing Strategy Remember the popular Apple iPod advertising campaign featuring a series of dark silhouetted characters holding iPods and dancing to the music against brightly colored backgrounds?  One of the innovative features of this advertising campaign was an online photo gallery at the Apple website where iPod users could upload photographs of themselves using their iPods at unique and interesting locations.  Website visitors could browse through photos of individuals from all over the world, proudly displaying their iPods. User photograph galleries are a simple and cost-effective way to attract traffic to your business website.  ...

Viral marketing strategies encourage satisfied customers to promote products and services to others through word-of-mouth. Like the dreaded flu virus, viral marketing has immense possibility for expansion and exponential multiplication as information is passed from individual to individual on the worldwide web. Many Internet marketers have implemented viral marketing techniques and seen substantial results. Here are a few recommendations from our seasoned professionals: 1. Take advantage of the power of “free.” No other word attracts attention like the all-powerful word in Internet marketing: free. Many businesses launch viral marketing campaigns by offering valuable free products and services. Often, website visitors will arrive ...

What is Social Media? Social media uses Web 2.0 Internet technology to allow website visitors to communicate with other visitors and interact with site content. Popular social media sites, such as Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube, offer visitors opportunities to enter into dialogue about topics that matter to them. Readers can “tag” stories to share with others, rate content, or post comments. Website visitors are active participants in an interactive landscape of information. Podcasts and blogs are also adopted by businesses as a medium of marketing and mass communications. The Power of Social Media for Internet Marketing Imagine a savvy Internet shopper searching for ...

Direct customer feedback is by far one of the most invaluable tools available to businesses. While it may sound simple enough, doing so may prove a bit more complicated.  Customer feedback is useful when learning which of your marketing or advertising campaigns was successful, and also to understand your conversion rates. Most often when calling a business, you’ll be asked where and how you found out about them.  In hindsight, this is a good approach at finding out the success rate of your marketing, but beware of the data you are collecting.  Using a question like “How did you hear about ...

Knowledge is power, but searching for knowledge is not always the easiest nor the most pleasant of tasks. What would you say if that knowledge would be passed onto you without having you move a finger? No, it's not a dream. It's Google Alerts. This new, free technology from Google alerts you with the knowledge you are in search of. Here are the different types of alerts you can receive when you sign-up for Google Alerts: Link and Brand Name Monitoring Knowing who talks about you on the web is very important. Be it positive or negative, any savvy sales and ...

In a recent article published by Entrepreneur.com titled "Get Them Talking", Heather Clancy says "One good referral is worth dozens of unqualified prospects." Yelp is the next Yellow pages, but completely online. It allows people to search for local business in communities across the U.S. The interesting aspect of Yelp.com is that it enables customers to review and rank particular business based on their quality of service. When a potential prospect searches for the business or industry, they have the ability to sort the listing based on ranking. Next time you interact with your customer or prospect, be mindful ...

Recently, Facebook announced its new advertising program, a bold attempt at creating more relevant and effective web advertising. So what is social advertising? It works something like this. Imagine you are a die-hard fan of Coca-Cola. So you go and add Coca-Cola as one of your “friends” or link to your existing Facebook profile. The next time anyone in your social network views your profile, they will also be seeing Coca-Cola advertisements—and perhaps how you feel about them too. Social advertising attempts to commission the social context of the user. Thus, advertisements are not reliant on the one individual but ...