The Future Buzz

image credit: circulating via flickr

Choosing an online marketing or PR agency is a decision you should not take lightly. There are a plethora of choices in this space, and lots make big claims. You should choose an experienced agency that will position your brand in the right way for your desired audience on the web.

This is no easy task. From big brands to small businesses, everyone needs to be strategic in how to enter the social web properly. Social media marketing, SEO, blog development, organic traffic building strategy, and how to grow your brand on the web are just a few of the things to consider. You need a flexible agency that knows how to do all of this and more.

image credit: matthew fang via flickr

Hey, marketing pro: it’s 2008, and the social web is ubiquitous. If you haven’t taken the time already to learn how the world has changed, feel free to ignore the shift at your own peril, while everyone else gets further ahead.

Continued education is a part of every communication professional’s career success. Just because you finish school does not mean you are done learning, especially in an industry as fast paced as marketing.

Regardless, it is unbelievable to me to see some painfully obvious mistakes on the web made by people in the marketing industry and the business world as a whole. It may not seem like a big deal to you, but think about how you come across to those with an intimate understanding of this space. Imagine if you actually make some of these mistakes with a potential client that is up to speed on tech.

Here’s 10 mistakes (in no particular order) no one should be making anymore:

Findability

image credit: aoifecahill via flickr

Is your business findable? Are you findable? These are key questions. Yes, you may think you’re findable, but just how findable are you really? It is highly worth testing.

In the last 30 days alone, well over 1,000 absolutely unique people found this blog through Google. That isn’t even my highest traffic source (social media is above and beyond the highest), but I want to focus on the Google traffic to this site just for a minute to share with you why this matters for your business/blog/online store/whatever you’re doing on the web.

Disclaimer to Digg and Reddit users who also read my blog: this post is to educate those external of these communities. If you’re an active member of either of these sites, the content below may not be new to you.

Digg and Reddit are two of the most powerful communities of social media users on the web. They are the evolution of message boards and message forums that were the previous forefront of the social web (and continue to be popular as well).

Ken Kadet, an independent communications consultant (previously an agency guy) left a great comment here the other day that got me thinking.

Let me pull out the part I want to focus on:

“Back at the agency, we kept waiting for the Digital Natives to show up, but they never did. There are plenty of 20-somethings entering the workforce with no clue how social networking can be used for anything beyond posting a plastic-beer-cup toast on Facebook, let alone marketing.”

I think it’s interesting he makes that point, as I grew up building computers, making websites, interacting online and ultimately being passionate about technology for as long as I can remember. I figured most of my peers had as well, at least the ones who saw how incredible the emerging tool was for society. It was just too cool of a movement not to be a part of.

I don’t normally do posts like this, but it’s still really cool to me when others quote me or write a feature on one of my campaigns (I feel the same as Noah Brier on that).

Thought I’d share two different stories I was recently quoted in:

• A story on corporate blogging in the QSR (quick service restaurant) industry. Some other bloggers quoted in the story were Ed Schipul, Jennifer A. Jones and David Nour - all added great points.

• A feature on the beta test - this one is behind a paywall for 30 days on the publications site, so I had to scan it as a preview for you guys…I will link to the publication when they unlock it.
  

Thanks again for reading this site and also to those of you who participate in my social marketing campaigns and make things like this possible.

image credit: csb13 via flickr

As you’re already well aware, the social web is the most efficient and useful tool the world has seen for sharing messages, insights, music, videos, information — whatever you want.

You certainly are a consumer of the conversations and interactions on the web daily. You’re reading this blog post aren’t you?

But if you’re a communications professional and not a contributor on a deep level, you’re missing out on something huge. You are turning your back on a scratchpad that is so unbelievably powerful, if you saw the results from the eyes of the contributer you’d wonder why you waited so long to actually dive in.

image credit: victoriapeckham via flickr

As someone who works at a firm with a diverse array of clients, I spend a good deal of time reading trade publications across industries. It is always interesting to me when they go into how the specific industry in question is using technology and the web.

The non-tech trade publications actually do a pretty good job of covering things their industry is doing on the web. Never quite as good as the web publications written by web pros, but of course those are written by people who work in this space 24/7.

It’s still a novelty that in a world of user generated content, a monolithic organization would take the time to respond to a message - especially in an unexpected and totally creative way.

This is the response by EA Sports to a video that a Tiger Woods PGA Tour ‘08 fan posted on YouTube 1 year ago:

[youtube FZ1st1Vw2kY]

Made page one of Digg, and at the time of posting this has nearly a million views in just a few short days.

image credit: amayzun via flickr

What I work best with as a marketing professional are finished web products, blogs and web sites. And, when it’s something which has been designed properly, logically and cleanly - all the online marketing/PR/advertising and social media promotions really compliment something that has been created with usability and SEO in mind.

Without a properly designed site, however,you are already at a huge disadvantage with trying to grow your brand on the web to your competitors who are doing it better. Trying to grow a web property that wasn’t built properly through social media marketing is like trying to put a jet engine on a car. Yeah, it might go a little faster, but it’s still not going to fly.