Monthly Archives: March 2010

5 Tips on Creating a Better Content Strategy

Mar 26th, 2010    Internet Marketing, Social Media Marketing

SXSW was an amazing conference. some of the brightest minds in the Internet marketing industry gathered together to talk social media, web development, interactive marketing, and content strategy.

One of the panels I went to was all about content strategy and web writing and why it is extremely important for businesses. A lot of companies overlook the importance of having a cohesive content strategy when it comes to their websites and think that the writing stops after the copy does. This isn’t the case.

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The panel was comprised of :

Erin Anderson - Brain Traffic

Ian Alexander - Eat Media

Tiffani Jones - thingsthatarebrown LLC

Dan Maccarone - HardCandyShell

5 Tips on creating a better content strategy

1. Picking the right medium

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AlterNation Episode 6: Twitalytics

Mar 23rd, 2010    Internet Marketing, Podcasts, Social Media Marketing, Web Analytics


Welcome to AlterNation! Today we’re talking about tools to make Twitter easier to use, and more powerful for you.

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Management

Twitter’s website may be fine for the average user, but it isn’t that handy for someone looking to use the service for business. We suggest using <a href=” />HootSuite to manage your account or accounts. With HootSuite you can Tweet from multiple accounts, follow keywords and brand mentions, and schedule tweets.

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SXSW 2010 Wrap Up

Mar 22nd, 2010    Design, Web Development

We’re back! This past weekend a few of us from AlterImaging headed down to Austin, TX to get our yearly fix of all things internet. This year was a little different from past years in that there were no huge announcements in the realm of social media and no clear winner of the “next big thing” title. Yes, Twitter did announce their @anywhere add on which should help boost twitter’s adoption rate but this years conference definitely seemed to revolve around how things are evolving. For example, the next generation of web languages – HTML5 and CSS3 and how this affects web design. Subsequently there was also a lot of talk and debate about how Flash is dead due to the fact these coding languages along with Javascript are taking it’s place and rightly so.

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AlterNation Episode 5: Mobile Sites and Content Creation

Mar 18th, 2010    Podcasts

Welcome to AlterNation Episode 5. On this episode, we’re talking about the importance of having a mobile version of your site, as well as creating content on a regular basis.

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According to a December 2009 Mobile metrics report by AdMob, the iPhone has a 54% browser market share in North America, and Android has a 27% browser market share. Because these devices can display full versions of the websites, many website owners feel that it’s not important to have a mobile version of their site. Even though there are so many mobile devices that can display full versions of their site, it’s still important to have a mobile version of your site. Slower mobile networks and tiny navigation elements can make navigating a site on a mobile device an unpleasant experience.

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Your Browser, Your Choice

Mar 12th, 2010    Fun & Facts

What browser are you using right now? Do you know? Did you know you have a choice? With news that the European Commission is requiring Microsoft to display a prompt to allow people to decide what browser to use, it’s important to know what your choices are and what the difference are between them.

To better understand the difference, we need to talk a little about where these browsers came from.

A Little History

Back in 1991, a guy named Tim Berners-Lee created the first web browser called WorldWideWeb. Then in 1993, the NCSA created a browser called Mosaic. Marc Andreessen, who helped create the Mosaic browser, started a company called Netscape and created a browser based on Mosaic called Netscape Navigator.

In 1995, Microsoft licenced technology from the Mosaic browser and created its browser called Internet Explorer. By bundling the browser with Windows, Internet Explorer began gaining substantial market share.

In 1998, Netscape created the Mozilla Foundation which aimed to create a competing browser called Mozilla.

By 2002, Internet Explorer had a 95% market share. Around this time, the Mozilla Foundation launched an early release of the Firefox browser (at the time, it was called Phoenix).

In 2003, Apple released its own browser called Safari. In 2004, Mozilla launched Firefox 1.0 which was the first version aimed at the general public. In 2008, Google launched its browser called Chrome. Read More

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AlterNation Episode 4: Twelp Your Customers

Mar 9th, 2010    Podcasts

Welcome to Alternation! Today we’re talking about Twitter, specifically using the network for customer service.

Customer Service With Twitter

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Southwest Airlines’ response to Kevin Smith is a good example of a company using Twitter to handle a situation that could have been out of their control. Toyota is doing the same thing, to a degree, and using Tweetmeme to try and steer the conversation about their massive recall in a positive direction. In both cases, Twitter is helping businesses repair a tarnished image; something that would have been far more difficult to do in years past.

Best Buy launch the “Twelp Force” last summer; a way for people to ask Best Buy employees questions through Twitter. As of a few weeks ago, the Twelp Force had answered over 22,000 questions, and averages 100 questions answered a day. The Twelp Force is a great example of a business using Twitter as a combined service and marketing front, since they are answering questions, and commonly referring people to products and services Best Buy offers.
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You Want To FTP My What?: A User’s Guide to Web Lingo

Mar 8th, 2010    Fun & Facts

When I first walked through Alter Imaging’s fabulous doors as an official employee, I was about as excited as a girl could get (without something chocolate or sparkly dangling in front of her face). That being said, I was also a tad shaky/nervous/terrified/nauseated due to my, shall we say, “green-ness.”

I had just recently graduated from Appalachian State (Go Mountaineers!!) with a degree in Advertising, a minor in Business Marketing, and a vague understanding of the general working world. But I scored big with landing a dream-job at AI and I was confident that I was prepared for whatever tasks were thrown my way.

Little did I know, I knew very little.

I was first clued-in that I still had a lot to learn when someone said, “Emily, please FTP the XML sitemap for the SEO so we can boost our pagerank ASAP.” Umm, what?! Okay, ASAP means “as soon as possible.” And that was the extent of my comprehension of that sentence. I had to do something with a something for the something to boost our something, as soon as possible.

So I did what any resourceful, 20-something would do: I threatened befriended the web developer and forced asked him to teach me important web lingo. If I heard a term I was unfamiliar with, I would write it down and later go get the definition from my new victim teacher. It was a beautiful system.

Often when I speak with clients, a term or web process comes up that they’re not familiar with, so I (with my newfound knowledge) would explain it to them so we’re all on the same page.

And then I had an epiphany. Read More

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AlterNation Episode 3: Using the ‘Book for Business

Mar 2nd, 2010    Internet Marketing, Podcasts, Social Media Marketing

Welcome to AlterNation Episode 3! We’re taking a close look at using Facebook for business and marketing, and we discuss all sorts of tips and tricks.

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Getting Started
Facebook has a decent system in place to show you how to set up various portions of your page, but after that they don’t give any instructions. There are lots of things you can do, and should do to improve your page and connect better with fans and clients. One of the earliest, and most vital things you need to do for your page is obtain a Facebook vanity URL, at WiseStamp is a useful tool for adding this sort of link to emails.
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