Monthly Archives: December 2012
13 Things Digital Marketers Should Master In #2013
Last year I created a post about 12 Platforms That We Should Use in 2012 and my goodness what a difference a year makes. So much has happened in the world of Digital Marketing in 2012, all pretty exciting. Progress is always a wonderful thing and all of the changes, good, bad or ugly is history altering in this industry.
With so much change occuring last year, we should start 2013 with mastering some things that will alter and enhance our lives within this ever changing digital marketing space. Take a look at the 13 things you should master in 2013.
- Google+: Last Year Google+ barely made my list although I was always a fan. I must admit to being quite guilty of not utilizing this platform as much as I should. So this year I will change that! Google has really stepped up their game with this platform and that is a game changer for social media platforms. Google has integrated all of the Google services, this is HUGE. Google rolled out a great connection with Blogger, Youtube, merged Google Local and added Communities. ALL HUGE, especially when Facebook has been making so many changes that have not been beneficial to brands. One of these changes is the algorithm change almost forcing brands to utilize Facebook ads to get the exposure that they once had for free. Also the new layout that doesn’t allow branded iFrame pages to be the default landing page, again forcing brands to look at other channels for driving website traffic, namely Facebook ads. Finally Facebook doesn’t allow contact information on brand cover pages. ALL of these choices that Facebook has made make it very easy for brands to explore Google+ for their brands.
- Explore Twitter more thoroughly: As Facebook minimized avenues in which brands could expose their contact
information to their followers, Twitter provided an opportunity for brands by way of the new layout and header to maximize exposure. This is reason enough to explore Twitter more or utilize it more, if you currently do not use it as much as you should. - WordPress: If you are not utilizing wordpress and you have an old school traditional website, now is the time to consider looking at WordPress as your website/blog platform. The endless possibilities of this platform is enough to make you take a look at it and go for it. Also venture outside of the templates offered by WordPress, there are so many websites that offer templates that may better fit your brands needs. If you can’t find one suitable, consider getting a custom template created just for your brand.
- Triberr: Is a MUST have this year as it was last year, maybe more so. I cannot stress the importance of this platform enough. EVERYONE that blogs needs to be a part of Triberr for the maximum exposure to their blog. The key to Triberr and being successful is being selective about Tribes. Make Triberr a part of your digital marketing strategy for 2013 NOW!
- Refresh Your Brand: Your digital marketing strategy loses its effectiveness without consistent branding. It is very important to have a memorable and consistent brand across all social media channels. A new year is a great time to freshen your old brand or even start from scratch.
- Monetize Your Content: If you have a decent blog following you should consider monetizing your content. Look at Google ads, affiliate marketing and other monetizing options.
- Go Visual: Even if you are currently put off by Instagram don’t let that stop you from diving into other visual platforms. Check out Flickr, Pinterest or both. Don’t forget to incorporated Youtube into your Digital Marketing Mix. The new year is a great time to create a company capabilities videos displaying some of the new services that you offer or emphasize some of the other services that you currrently offer. Incorporate your new refreshed brand while you’re at it in to your Youtube channel.
- Add some traditional Marketing to your mix: All of any one way to market is never a good idea even in this very digital world. I have blogged often about integrating digital into traditional marketing, but there are a few traditional marketing concepts that work well with digital marketing concepts. Although traditional marketing has changed so much it is not totally obsolete. A fusion of traditional and digital marketing is something that should be explored. Consider doing a direct mail campaign to reintroduce your newly branded online presence and wordpress page. This will allow you to tie your marketing efforts together and create some buzz about your newly branded online presence.
- Explore new technologies: There is always a reason to explore new technologies, primarily because we are living through a huge period of change with technologies. Although these technologies aren’t exactly new, they are not totally embraced yet so learn more about Augmented Reality, Cloud Computing, 3D Printing and more.
- Explore Mobile: Just in case you haven’t noticed yet a lot of people utilize their mobile device probably more than their laptop and/or desktop. Make your site mobile ready, if you haven’t done so yet. Also consider getting a mobile website if you do not have the ability to make your site mobile ready and create a redirect from your traditional site to your mobile site. This would allow people that are on mobile devices to automatically go to your mobile site if they are on a mobile device.
- Explore QR Codes again: Mobile devices aren’t going anywhere, if anything usage will increase as the years go by.
QR Codes are a great way to create great campaigns to get people to your website. Make sure your QR code campaign is well planned and executed. A few tips, you must have a call to action. You must give a person a reason to scan and make sure your QR Code scans to a mobile device. Finally have a GREAT QR code scanning App. I am currently using Scan.Me and It is the best QR code scanner that I’ve used as of yet because you just move your mobile device close to the QR code and it scans. That’s it, no fiddling around, minimal steps. Tie your QR code campaign to your new direct mail campaign! WINNING! - Social Media Time Management: Time management is essential with social media, which can honestly be a huge time suck which could lead to burn out without effective time management. Social Media burn out is not even an option, if you are a Digital Marketer. So utilize tools that will help you manage your time more efffectively.
- Finally, Have FUN! Digital Marketing is FUN especially if you have figured out a way to effectively manage your time!
As usual, I welcome any thoughts or comments, good, bad, ugly or indifferent! Feel free to check me out on Facebook or Twitter!
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Social Media Gurus -vs- Digital Marketers: Gurus Your Days Are Numbered!
It has been a few years now of companies venturing into the social media marketing space by way of different online channels. The past few years have been a huge transition by individuals and companies from utilizing traditional marketing almost exclusively, to venturing into the online marketing space. This transition has been filled with growing pains i’m sure and although the transition has not been seamless, it is progressing.
At one time It seemed as if companies just didn’t get it, that they really didn’t understand the importance of the online presence. The transition from what was once was exlusively traditional marketing to mostly digital and now a bit of a fusion between the two is lending itself to a willingness by organizations, to embrace this new era of marketing.
Two years ago there was a huge avenue for people to present themselves as SOCIAL MEDIA GURUS to the unsuspecting organization that felt a bit of urgency to run head first into the online marketing space. Now that some have done that and are experiencing it, they are now realizing that working with a Social Media Guru is just not enough. This is primarily because it’s NOT just about social media, it is about Digital Marketing which is a much more diverse combination of Internet strategies. Exclusively utilizing JUST social media is like using only print catalogs in traditional marketing, it is just NOT enough. This is the same philosophy that has to be embraced when thinking of Digital Marketing, utilizing JUST social media is just not enough.
At one time it was ok to utilize some traditional marketing and have a website. Now a fusion of those strategies mixed with social media is making way for the Digital Marketer, which utilizes a combination of these strategies and more to create a total online /offline fusion that will move brands beyond the single dimension of just traditional marketing or just social media.
In 2013 the Digital Marketer will be more in demand that ever, because progressive companies have realized the importance of having marketers that skill sets embrace all digital strategies not just certain aspects of an online presence. Some tradition web design purist haven’t embraced social media integration and are stuck in what they have learned in a traditional sense. Additionally some social media gurus have not moved past just posting information to social media channels. However, there are some web designers and social media marketers that HAVE embraced both and those are the Digital Marketer that will be in demand in 2013 and beyond.
Ultimately the goal as a Digital Marketer is to bring value to your clients, customers and employers. This will not be done by any of the following:
- Tagging 100+ people on Facebook everyday to boost your Klout score. Your employer, client and or potential client/employer probably could give a rats you know what about your score. Most employers or clients don’t even know what Klout is or what is involved with the scoring process. Do you even know?
- Connecting to random influencers and NOT becoming an influencer yourself. Your influencer is an influencer for a reason. You will make out better trying to analyze what they are doing right and emulate them.
- Posting 1000 pictures every day of random things. Although these photos may be beautiful, if this is ALL you do, how can that contribute to the value of your potential employer, client or customer? Or put you in a position to gain customers, clients or find employment in the Digital Marketing Space?
The goal in this increasingly savvy digital marketing space, should be to provide services of value to potential and current employers and clients to increase their brand exposure, place them in a position to interact with THEIR current clients/potential clients and increase their chances of increasing revenue. This will involve YOU doing NONE of the above bulleted points but WILL involve you creating custom strategies for potential employers and clients in which to accomplish these goals. The lack of ability to do this WILL separate the Gurus from the Digital Marketers, that are really on their game.
As we move forward in the Digital Marketing space we have to be willing to continue to grow and embrace new technologies that provide added value to clients, potential clients and employers. It has been an amazing few years in this space that is continuing to grow at an amazing rate of speed. 2013 will be the the year of many exciting changes to the people that are on their Digital Marketing game and challenges to those that are not on their game. Either way, get ready because I have a feeling its going to be a helluva ride!
If you have comments, good, bad, ugly or indifferent I can be contacted by subscribing to my Facebook public updates or finding me on Twitter! I shall see you soon, I’m sure!
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This Is Your BRAIN On Social Media [Infographic]
Last weekend I was having a bit of a technical issue with my router and it’s failure to communicate effectively with my modem. This created a HUGE issue with my need to communicate by way of social media. Not that I was having a social media withdrawal issue or anything.
I really think that we have grown so accustomed to tuning in to social media because it allows us to gain access to so many things that are going on. We tune in to find out what’s going on with our friends, the latest news and everything that is going on in the world. Social Media has literally become our one stop shop news source. So it is understandable the it has become very valuable to most. With that said, it seems that social media has become a bit of an addiction for many. I’m still not admitting that I have an issue or anything ONLY saying that I understand. 
However, take a look at the infographic below which displays how many other people may be having a social media issues.
Please Include Attribution to OnlineCollegeCourses.com With This Graphic 
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Old Technology Meets New / Typewriter Meets iPad…. Say What?
Today I had a presentation introducing the new website that I am working on for a Healthcare services organization. The presentation went well primarily due to the input by one of my new favorite people, Ann. She knows that I am a bit of a techie, so she mentioned an invention created Jack Zylkin, who is her daughters boyfriend. As a person that is so involved with technology and also has an ongoing and serious love affair with tech gadgets, I must say I was intrigued with the USB typewriter.
Say What? Yup, Typewriter meets USB meets iPad! What’s so awesome about this is that it provides the opportunity to repurpose the old back in the day typewriters but with a new technology spin. As a person that remembers the typewriter days I just felt a need to find out more about this super cool invention. The techie hipster in me just had to find out more!
This kind of repurposed technology may not appeal to a huge mainstream “camp out in the elements for 5 days for the next techie gadget” demographic BUT I see it as a really cool techie piece that is extremely unique and quite frankly very cool. Additionally it offers a bit of nostalgia to those that actually remember old school typewriters. Ultimately super cool and I would definitely LOVE to grab one of these for me or as a holiday gift. What do you think?
Take a look at the video below
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Higher Education Going Tech? Are You Ready For A Peek Of Higher Education in 2020? [Infographic]
By now we are ALL aware of how Digital Marketing has taken the world by storm. We really don’t think about it because it was a process that happened so gradually. One minute we were flipping through the Fall Preview Guide of the TV Guide to see all of the next seasons shows and the next thing we know, we are viewing that edition ONLINE.
I was recently having a discussing about things and I mentioned to the person about the changes that have occured and how quickly. They gave me a puzzled look until I used the TV Guide Analogy. We have really quite literally been taken over by Digital Media. We use mobile phones for conversations, taking pictures, interacting with people and occasionally even talking on it. 
Although I prefer traditional paper books, the sales of traditionally books have been on a steady decline due to the increasing popularity of book readers like Nook, Kindle and iPad. We have come a long way baby!
There will be NO industry left untouched by this historical growth of technology. One of the industries that I would love to be enveloped, altered and changed for the better by this amazing Digital Technology boom is Education! I just had a conversation that started with politics and ended with education that detailed how education needs to be pulled from the manufacturing era into the technology era. Well, due to the growth of this technology era, I believe it’s a possibility and I would LOVE to see how things could evolve.
Take a look at the infographic below that displays how education could benefit from a strong boost of the digital era.
Please include attribution to TheBestColleges.org with this graphic.
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