Customer Service With Twitter

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.

Customer service on Twitter isn’t limited to big business by any means. Small businesses can use many of the same techniques to better serve their customers and build trust. There are lots of services online to let you know when your brand or business has been mentioned; we recommend using Hootsuite to manage your businesses account. Through Hootsuite you can set follow keywords, keep track of what people are saying about your business, and reply back to them effortlessly. An example of how to build trust and better serve customers would be to simply respond whenever they check in on Foursquare or mention going to your establishment. A simple ‘thanks for stopping by!’ is all it takes to build some trust and goodwill with your customers.

Contact Us!
Alter Imaging
Alter Imaging Blog
David on Twitter
Paul on Twitter

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.

I went through my old notes with terms and questions and created a nifty little glossary filled with the unfamiliar web lingo that once stumped me to the point of head-on-desk slamming. Ah, the student has become the teacher. And this teacher teaches in layman’s terms for your lingo-learning pleasure.

A

A/B Testing – also called “split testing”- this is a method used in advertising and interactive marketing that gauges the effectiveness of a change in text, layout, color, etc of the item being tested. For a very simple example, you want to determine if using the color green will increase the effectiveness of an email campaign, so you send out 50 emails to a group of people using the color blue, and then send an additional 50 emails to a separate group of like-minded people, using the color green. Based on the responses of these groups, you will be able to determine which color was most successful in producing the best results.

Adwords – AdWords is a product offered by a really small company that you’ve probably never heard of called Google. AdWords offers pay-per-click services and website-targeted advertising for text and banner advertisements for local, national and international distribution. See also Pay Per Click, or Cost Per Click

Algorithm – in regards to search engines and search engine optimization, these are sets of rules that search engines follow that ranks and lists websites, according to the keyword query (if you’re not sure what the word ‘query’ is, take a scroll down to the “Q” section and feed your mind)

Alternet CMS – CMS stands for Content Management System, and manage it does. This nifty application allows users to update/add/remove articles, events, forms, pages, rich media, and the kitchen sink, all in one user-friendly program. Just kidding about the ‘kitchen sink’ thing, but who knows what the future may bring?!

B

Banners – also referred to as “CTAs”, banners are quick and simple statements that compel users to click them, thus linking users to a predetermine page. Banners are generally located on the side of a webpage, and are typically used for pages companies want to be high-traffic pages.

Banner Advertisement – Think ‘billboard-on-a-computer-screen.’ Banner ads can be a static image or rich media (see the ‘R’ section if you aren’t sure what this is) and come in a variety of sizes on websites. When banner ads are clicked, the user will be taken to a predetermined web page. Banner ads are typically used for 1. company branding (“Hey, we’re ABC Company, and we’ll rock your face-off with our coolness—click here!”) 2. Product or service advertising (“Hey, ABC product will rock your face off with its coolness—click here!”) or 3. Call-to-action (“Hey, contact us today to have your face rocked off—click here!”)

Blog – A Blog is an online journal in which users frequently update the contents with their opinions, stories, helpful information, you name it. Blogs are used for everything from breaking news stories to political information to Lindsay Lohan’s current relationship status. Companies are now utilizing blogs more and more to showcase their personalities

Beta – when referring to the Internet, beta is simply a version of an item (website, project, etc.) that has been released to the public, but is still undergoing some minor tweaks and changes through testing.

Bandwidth - a rate of transferring bits between the server and its visitors, measured in bits per second. The more images and downloadable content you have on your site requires more bandwidth, thus increasing the site time for your visitors. If you take up too much bandwidth, chances are they will get fed up with your site and leave.

Breadcrumbs - position indicators that display a direct route to the content page you are currently in. This feature is used to let users know where they are in a site, and how they got there. For example, if you start getting click-happy in a site and end up on a page deep within the site, if breadcrumbs are utilized on that site, you would see something that may look like: About Us > Our Company > Company Standards > Company Employees > Employee of the Year >  Employee of the Year Archive.

C

Cache – is a collection of frequently used information that is temporarily stored in the CPU or hard drive so that it may be accessed again. Data is retrieved from the cache much quicker and requires much less bandwidth than if it were retrieved from its original source on a server, thus making everyone’s life a little happier.

Call To Action (CTA) – an instrument, usually in the form of a message or graphic, used in web development and design that urges users to move to a predetermined web page, or compels the user to take some form of action. Common CTAs are used for “contact us,” “request a quote,” “order this item,” or “learn more.”

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) – a language for stylesheets used to format HTML, SGML and XML-based documents, most commonly, in web sites. Think of CSS like hair-gel for websites: it’s used to style pages so that they have a certain look.

Click Through Rate (CTR) – a method of measuring the effectiveness of an online advertisement by dividing the number of actual clicks on the ad by the number of overall impressions (see Impressions) that were available. So let’s say a banner ad (see Banner Ad) was delivered 100 times to a website, and only 1 person actually clicked on the ad, the CTR would be 1%.

Client – an application or a system that has the ability to retrieve information from a server via a network. See also “Client-side” and “Client-Server Relationship”

Client Brief – When working with Alter Imaging, the Client Brief is the first deliverable that will be sent to you after the project Kick-off meeting. This document will contain information about your company, your audience, your intended tone, perceptions, guidelines, etc. all put nicely into a document for everyone’s enjoyment. This document will be utilized by Alter Imaging’s team so that everyone is on the same page regarding what your company does, and what we are expected to do for your company.

Client-Server Relationship – a software model that allows client systems and server systems to exchange and/or distribute information over a computer network. The client will initiate the exchange with the server, and the server waits for a request from the client. For example, if you use iTunes and you download a song from the Apple Store online, iTunes (the client) will initiate communication with Apple’s server (the server) so that you may download the song to your computer. See also “Client” and “Client-Side”

Client-Side – any type of operation that is performed by the client in the client-server relationship. See also, “Client” and “Client-Server Relationship”

CSS – see Cascading Style Sheets

CMS – see Content Management System

CMYK – acronym used for the colors Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black, which are the process colors used in process printing.

Content Management System (CMS) – is an application that allows a user to update their website, without needing to have a specialized technical knowledge. All CMSs allow users to in the very least, change text on a page and then see it immediately reflected on the site. But a choice few companies (I can really only think of one off the top of my head… ALTER IMAGING (704)770-9900 www.alterimaging.com) have super-amazingly-crazy-easy CMSs that allow you to basically do whatever you want to your website. And it’s easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy. See Alternet CMS

Cookies – are small bundles of text that are sent and stored on a person’s computer via a web browser that allow a server to “remember” certain settings, preferences or authenticating info for users when they revisit a site.

Cost Per Click (CPC) - a form of Internet Marketing where the advertiser only pays when the advertisement is clicked by a user. These ads are comprised of keywords that are purchased by advertisers (see AdWords) and then are distributed by search engines across the web.

Cost per Thousand (CPM) – a media-measuring term referring to the amount of impressions that are measured by an accumulation of people who may potentially see an advertisement. These people do not have to actually see the advertisement; they just have to have an opportunity to see it. So if you were watching a show on TV and went to the kitchen during the commercial break, you would still be considered in the CPM calculation because you had the opportunity to see the ad, you just opted to grab another ice cream sandwich during that time.

Content Required - a document that is given to each of our clients once the Information Architecture of their project has been approved. This is a list of content (text, images, etc) that will be inserted into the website. The content is the most important part of any website because without it, you’ve just got an awkward webpage with lorem ipsum text (see lorem ipsum). It’s like an Oreo that has the crème center removed. It’s just not good.

Conversion Rate – the percentage of people who comply with the marketer’s intended action when they visit a website. If a company has a high conversion rate, rest assured there will be a lot of high-fiving and chest-bumping taking place in that office.

CPC – see Cost Per Click

CPM - see Cost per Thousand

Current Inventory – all of the stuff that makes up your current website. This includes images, videos, links, etc. We make a list of your current inventory prior to the kickoff meeting, so we have an idea of what pages we are working with, what info we should keep and what info we should scrap.

D

Deliverables – These are items that will be given to you throughout the course of the project, listed and categorized in a nice deliverables schedule for your convenience. In most projects, deliverables include (but are not limited to) project briefs, wireframes, designs, flowers and Chinese food.

Directory – when referring to the Internet, a web directory contains links that are listed, categorized and linked to other websites.

Domain Name System (DNS) – is a name-translating system for anything that is connected to the Internet or private network. It turns web addresses us Humans can remember into a series a numbers that is associated with that site so the computer can send you there. Since you’re more likely to remember www.cuddlykittens.com than 208.77.188.166, you should appreciate that the DNS has your back.

E

E-commerce - buying and selling of stuff over the Internet. Think E-Bay and Amazon.com.

Easter Egg – neat, hidden functions on a website that are not obvious at first to a user. For example, have you ever been to a website and dragged your curser over a picture, and out of the blue, the picture moved or changed? Some companies hide Easter eggs throughout their site to encourage site visitors to stick around their website. Inventive, huh?

Extranet – it’s a private network that uses Internet protocols and is connected to a network, but it’s usually only used amongst businesses and organizations and the people/businesses they work with.

F

Flexcart - Alter Imaging’s hugely successful and ridiculously helpful proprietary e-commerce application that helps you maintain, update and reap the benefits of online buying and selling. If you’re in the e-commerce business and frequently need to update your products or information, Flexcart lets you login, change what you need, save it, and it’s immediately updated and displayed online. Instant gratification.

Flash – moving or animated parts of a website that are created with flash animation software. When you go to a website and there is some moving action going on, it’s most likely flash.

Font – Font is the style, outline and size of a complete set of characters of a particular typeface. Font refers to all parts of the typeface, so 9-point Ariel font is a different font than 11-point Ariel font, even though are both the Ariel typeface.

Footer – the bottom section of a web page that is displayed on every page of the website and doesn’t change. The footer usually consists of a re-cap of the navigation, and may include secondary pages that aren’t in the main navigation, such as a “Site Map” or “Privacy Policy.”

FTP – stands for File Transfer Protocol and it’s the standard network protocol that is used to exchange information (like files, images, etc) over the Internet.

G

Global Navigation – a site’s top-level categories that occur on every page of the site.

H

Happy Client Extranet – The helpful tool Alter Imaging uses to communicate and share info with each client. Once the AI team or the client is logged in, files can be uploaded and downloaded, messages sent, to-do lists created, etc. Because the Happy Client can be accessed from anywhere that has an Internet connection, it’s a really efficient way to keep track of deliverables and have all info available, regardless of your location.

Hits (Page Hits) – a hit is a request for a file made to a server. When you go to a web page, that page is uploaded from a server and all the files associated with that page are requested. If that page includes 24 files (images, text, etc.) then that page will have 24 hits. It’s important to keep in mind that it’s not accurate to measure a site’s popularity by the number of hits, because it could just mean that the page has a lot of files associated with it.

Hosting – a service that lets people or businesses make their websites available on the web.

Host – In hosting, a web host gives a clients a certain amount of space on the host’s server so the client’s website is viewable online and files can be uploaded via FTP.

HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) – the most popular language used for web pages to create things such as headings, paragraphs, lists, interactive forms and embedding images in the page.

I

ISP (Internet Services Provider) - the company that gives you access to the Internet, ie: the company that sends you a monthly bill so that you can get on Facebook every night in the comfort of your own home.

Information Architecture (IA) – the information that is gathered in the Discover and Define phases, that really lays-out and shapes-up the project-in-progress. The IA involves research, briefs, plans, wireframes and the kitchen-sink.

Impressions – each time a page on a site is displayed for a user, it is counted as an impression. So if you are clicking through a site and you go to 4 pages, that’s counted as 4 impressions.

Inbound Links – links from pages on external sites linking back to your site. Inbound links can bring new users to your site, and when the links are merit-based and freely-volunteered as an editorial choice, they’re also one of the positive signals to Google about your site’s importance.

Internet Marketing – the marketing or advertising of any type of product or service via the Internet

Interactive Agency – Alter Imaging! But more specifically, an agency that offers any combination of web design and development, search engine optimization, Internet marketing, e-commerce solutions, etc.

J

JavaScript - a scripting language usually used to manipulate the DOM on web pages that have already been loaded. When a web page loads, you can no longer edit it. But with JavaScript you can code it so that you can go back and edit the html source and make changes to how things on the page look

K

Keywords - when referring to search engines, keywords are words that are most often used by people who are performing a search online. For Search Engine Optimization, you want to have as many relevant keywords visible on your site as possible so that search engines will find and display your site on their results page.

L

LAMP – an acronym for free, open-source software: Linux, Apache HTTP Server, MySQL and PHP.

Link Building – a strategy of optimizing your website through in and out-bound links

Lorem Ipsum – standard filler text that is used in place of the actual content when the actual content is not available.

Link Baiting – publishing a link that will entice people to come to your website. Think of it as the world’s shortest advertisement. It’s a great tool, but a tricky one because you have grab user’s attention with very little time and very little space on a site.

Landing Page – on a website, this is where a user is taken when the main navigation, a CTA, banner, link, etc. is clicked

Leading – the amount of vertical spacing that is between two lines of text. The higher percentage of leading, the more space there is between each line of text.

M

Metasearch – a search engine that searches multiple search engines and then displays them in a list for review

Merchant Account – type of bank account that businesses use to process credit/debit card charges. A merchant account is required for an e-commerce site’s function.

Mood Board – during the early stages of design, a mood board is used to present design elements (color palettes, textures, fonts, images, etc) to a client before completing the design.

N

Needs Analysis - (see S.W.O.T. Analysis)

O

Organic Search Results – see Search Engine Optimization

P

Page Specifications – a deliverable that is created by AI during the Define phase of the project. The page specifications list and display every page on the website, along with exactly what will be displayed on the page, and the page’s functionality. This is the most important document because it outlines and plans every single page on your site.

PageRank – rank given to your site by Google

Pantone Matching System (PMS) – the primary color system used in the printing industry that allows you to reproduce colors by comparing them to the standardized Pantone colors.

PHP – a scripting language that is used to build web applications and communicate with databases on the server.

Page Views – see Hits

Payment Gateway – a service provider that authorizes payments for e-commerce sites

Pixels – the smallest item that is displayed in an image. It’s the tiny, colored dots that make-up an image.

PPC – see Cost Per Click

Q

Query – a string of text that is used to retrieve information that is stored in a database.

R

Return on Investment (ROI) – the percentage lost/gained on any type of investment, based on the amount of money you invested.

RGB – the color model that is used to interpret what colors should be displayed on the monitor, using the primary colors Red, Green and Blue

Robots - see Spiders

S

Search Engine – a program used on the Internet that allows users to find information based off of keyword search criteria.  Think Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) – see Internet Marketing

Secure Login – A feature used to restrict access to specific areas of a Website.  A username and password is typically required for access.

SEM -  acronym for Search Engine Marketing – see Internet Marketing

Server-side Scripting – a web server technology in which a script is processed on the server and its output is then delivered to the browser. This is used to deliver custom or dynamic content.

Site Search – a function of a website that allows users to search for keywords within your site.

Software as a Service (SaaS) - a provider licenses an application to a customer for use.  The application is typically hosted on the software vendor’s server and can be accessed by an unlimited number of customers – all with a unique account.  A good example of SaaS is G-mail and Yahoo! Mail.

Spam – Unsolicited email that more often than not really ticks you off

Supplemental Navigation - give users additional, non-hierarchical ways to navigate a site. A few common supplemental navigation systems are breadcrumbs, tables of contents, search, and site maps

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – a service provided by Alter Imaging that optimizes your site so that it can achieve a higher rank on search engines

Site map – an XML file that search engines read to easily find all pages that are in your website.

Search Engine Spiders - A spider, also known as a robot or a crawler, is actually just a program that follows, or “crawls”, links throughout the Internet, grabbing content from sites and adding it to search engine indexes.

S.W.O.T. Analysis – a SWOT analysis can help you find out where your company’s strengths and weaknesses lie, and where opportunities for growth can be generated, and what threats could harm the growth of your company.

T

Typeface – a set of fonts, available in more than one size, that have similar design qualities. This usually includes letters, numbers and punctuation marks.

Typography – the art of arranging, designing, and creating typefaces by using illustration techniques.

U

Unique Visitor – used in reporting website statistics, a unit of measuring traffic that comes to your site during a certain time frame.

Unique Impressions – similar to Impressions, but instead of counting up all the times a user looks at a page, the same user is only counted once, regardless of how many page impressions he/she makes. So if Sam looks at 3 pages and Pat looks at 4, together they account for 7 impressions, but only 2 unique impressions.

URL – an acronym for Uniform Resource Locator which is a short string that identifies resources in the web: documents, images, downloadable files, services, electronic mailboxes, and other resources.

User – any person who looks through or navigates your website

Utility Navigation – a navigation that holds links to site pages that help the user, like site map, search, directory, etc.

V

Validation – the process of authenticating information before a user or a program is allowed to do something.

W

Web Analytics – a report about your website that can be analyzed and measured so that you can optimize your website accordingly.

Web Directory – see Directory

Webinars – a workshop or conference that is held over the Internet as opposed to meeting in person. Webinars allow many more people to participate since no traveling costs are an issue.

Webcast – the broadcasting of an event, live or recorded, over the Internet

Wireframe - a non-graphical representation of a web page with placeholders for text and other content that will be on a particular page.

WYSIWYG – (pronounced wiz-zee-wig) – an acronym for “What You See Is What You Get”. It creates HTML in a manner similar to the final output without having to actually know HTML.

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.

Connect With Fans
We pull a few tips from this link that are very useful for after you have created a basic page. one of the biggest issues with marketing on Facebook is that users are often apathetic to businesses, or won’t interact with them. In order to promote consversation and interactivity, you should:

Ask questions in posts, don’t just make statements. People are much more likely to comment on a question, because people like giving answers! Questions like “What is you favorite food at Boyd’s Restaurant” may seem trivial, but they get people talking about your food, and then when they get hungry, they might just drop by.

Post when people are using the site! I get some of my best ideas after midnight, but asking questions or posting blog articles that late is worthless; people won’t see them. The optimal time is between 9am and 3pm, any earlier and it might be overlooked, and any later and people aren’t using the web as much.

Respond to your fans, and let them know you see what they are writing. People like being recognized, whether it’s by the owner of Boyd’s Restaurant, or by Justin Bieber. (Just look at how excited people get when he follows them on Twitter) Thank your fans for kind words, and respond to their questions. Doing so builds positive feelings towards your brand, and that helps build customers.

Be human sometimes! Many businesses only spout off links, sales, or links to sales, but throwing in a more personal post will also help build positive feelings for your brand. A good example would be posting a personal thank you, pictures of your workplace and staff, or a link to something that has nothing to do with your business, and will make people laugh. Stay away from touchy subjects though; you may be proud of your political views, but spouting them off online could sour your business for prospective customers.

Use FBML to Customize your Page
FBML, or “FaceBook Markup Language” is an incredibly useful tool for customizing your page, and making it more like a website. Kim Woodbridge has lots of useful tips on adding various features at her blog, such as adding an mp3 file, or adding a ’share’ button.

Suggested Reading
HubSpot has a free eBook on using Facebook for Business. The data is a little dated, but the message isn’t. This eBook is an excellent “first read” for a business owner looking to start up a Facebook page.

Contact Us!
Alter Imaging
Alter Imaging Blog

For show notes, click more.

Social Games stats: PopCap Games commissioned a survey to determine who is playing games online, among other things. The results are very interesting, often contrary to common beliefs. Here’s a sample:

●The average social gamer is a 43-year-old woman.
●55% of social gamers are female and 45% are male.
●38% of female social gamers, and 29% of male social gamers, play social games several times a day.
●95% of social gamers play multiple times per week; and nearly two-thirds (64%) play at least once a day.
●53% of social gamers say they’ve earned and/or spent virtual currency in a social game, but only 28% have purchased virtual currency with real-world money.
●Facebook is the most popular destination for online games, with 83% of respondents saying they have played games there.

Read the Full Study.

Are we asking to be robbed? “PleaseRobMe.com” thinks so. The site pulls information from Twitter searches, and posts updates when people mention leaving home, or checking in to other places. According to the site: “The danger is publicly telling people where you are. This is because it leaves one place you’re definitely not… home. So here we are; on one end we’re leaving lights on when we’re going on a holiday, and on the other we’re telling everybody on the Internet we’re not home.” As we discuss though, the same danger is there if people know you will be gone at work during the day. More on Mashable

Webcam Spying: There is a class action suit against the Lower Merion School Disctrict of Pennsylvania at the moment. Why you ask? The school issued laptops have remote-access software on them, and the school has used this to access at least one of the laptop’s webcam. Blake Robbins, the plaintiff of the case was brought to the school office for discipline due to “improper behavior in the home”. The principal showed Blake a picture taken from his laptop as evidence. Read more

Contact Us!
Alter Imaging
Alter Imaging Blog

For show notes, click more.

Google Fiber: Coming later this Spring, Google is going to be testing a competitively priced, ultra-high speed fiber network in an as-yet-unannounced area of the United States. They say that they plan on providing a minimum of 50,000, and up to 500,000 people with internet connections at speeds of up to one gigabyte per second. Google

Google Buzz: Last week Google rolled out their answer to social networks and status updates in the form of ‘Google Buzz‘. Integrated in to Gmail, Buzz has already seen widespread adoption, and equally widespread debate. Buzz can pull content from your other places online, such as Flickr, Blogger, and Twitter, meaning that you can ‘buzz’ without ever having to write an update specifically for the service.
More Information
Mashable on Buzz Integration
Mashable on Buzz Buttons
Mashable on Buzz Features

Statistics on Social Networking on Phones: Some very interesting data emerged last week on how people are using phones for social media and other entertainment purposes. In a nutshell, social networking is the new entertainment.
Mashable

Google Acquires Aardvark: Google acquired the social search startup “Aardvark” last week, for a reported 50 million dollars. Aardvark is the result of 4 Phd’s in Artificial Intelligence writing an algorithm that pushes questions to people who can answer them. While no-one is entirely sure what Google wants to do with the company, setting up a counter to Yahoo Answers, or augmenting search results both seem like decent bets.
Announcement

Facebook Milestones:
Facebook hits 400 million users right as they began celebrating their sixth anniversary, and just 2 months after reporting 350 million. This means the social networking site is still growing rapidly, and you have to wonder when it will be able to claim 1/10 of all world citizens. Mashable has an infographic that looks at Facebook’s history, valuation, and more. In addition, Facebook has rolled out a major site redesign, placing greater emphasis on search, and putting much more content on the homepage.

Suggested Reading
The Centre for Learning and Performance Technologies has aggregated nearly 200 articles about Twitter from 2007 until now, making for an awesome guide and reading list. The list covers everything about Twitter you could think of, and even the most out-of-the-loop person could become an expert by reading these. 140 Learning

Special Segment Today’s special segment features an awesome infographic that details the ’state of the internet’ for late 2009. This graphic is absolutely full of information, and has a few truly unique gems- such as “54% of bloggers consider themselves experts on what they write about”.

Contact Us:
Alter Imaging
Alter Imaging Blog

Rick Burnes proposes that Marketing today is more about brains than budget. By leveraging Inbound Marketing you are able to pull your customers to you like using a magnet. And because you know longer need a massive budget to compete the playing field is leveled for all companies willing to invest the time to learn these new techniques. Take a look at this video to see how utilizing Inbound Marketing tools can effectively pull customers to your business.

Mapping the inbound marketing ecosystem with Rick Burnes of Hubspot from David Wells on Vimeo.
0:55 What we at Hubspot think of Inbound Marketing (Components: SEO, Content, Social Media, and how to measure it)

3:30 Traditional Marketing techniques are like a sledgehammer

4:50 New Marketing techniques function like a magnet attracting customers

6:40 Now what matters is not your budget but your brains (and creativity)

8:35 Why is Inbound cheaper?

10:10 Your blog is like an annuity. It continuously streams traffic without any additional cost

11:00 What is Inbound Marketing?

13:30 Basics of SEO  1. Keywords 2. Off and on page links

16:10 Off page – think of these links as recommendations

17:20 Links from reputable websites are more important to Google

17:40 How do you get these links? Produce content

19:00 Customers that blog get 97% more inbound links

19:48 Off page links are 75% of the pie because they are harder to get (so focus on content)

22:45 Blogging is like getting a Google lottery ticket every day. You have a chance to be ranked higher the more you have

23:30 What do you write about? What does your target persona want?

24:30 Don’t talk about your product directly, you will bore your customers

26:35 Start with a blog but also experiment with media that works with your target persona

29:02 Social Media seems like cotton candy, but it is more like wheat bread

32:48 Start listening, start building relationships, and start sharing content

34:15 Here’s where to start listening. Search for people talking about your brands and keywords and join in on the discussion

34:38 Once you have started listening start participating in Q&A (Facebook discussions, Yahoo! Answers, LinkedIn Q&A) LinkedIn is highly recommended by him

35:58 Amplify the reach of your content by building relationships

37:02 Twitter is both content distribution and conversation, both are equally important

39:34 What kind of content gets shared? Use new data, funny videos, or great blog posts over product info and free trials

40:48 Blogging increases Twitter reach

41:17 Twitter plays a bigger role in SEO because Google now indexes tweets in searches

43:45 You have to measure the whole marketing funnel

45:41 Look at visitors, leads, and customers in terms of each marketing channel

The Web 2.0 movement began a design trend towards clean, light websites along a more considerate view towards visitors with less capable browsers and mobile devices. Flash is now mostly used for interacting with entertainment, whether it’s viewing a video, playing a game, or manipulating information in a Flash based infographic.

When the iPhone was released, fans of the Flash platform were disappointed that mobile Safari did not support Flash. The reason we were given was that Flash can be processor intensive, leading to decreased battery life and instability.

Everyone accepted the fact that it’s impractical to have Flash on a mobile device. Yet when the iPad was released, it still did not support Flash. With recent news that Flash is coming to more mobile devices, it’s becoming clear that Apple is discouraging Flash support for its mobile devices. From the beginning, Adobe has showed interest in bringing the flash platform to the iPhone. Yet it’s in Apple’s best interest to keep Flash off its devices. Without Flash providing the possibility to view TV shows and play free games, users of the iPhone and iPad are stuck in the Apple ecosystem, relying on the app store for games and the iTunes store for TV shows.

With HTML 5 around the corner, the question is what role will Flash play in the future of the web? We’ve already seen Google release an HTML 5 based video player for YouTube. It’s faster, less processor intensive, and more stable. With the new canvas tag, it’s possible to create animations.

But clearly, the future of the Flash platform relies on Adobe’s ability to push the platform onto mobile devices. Unfortunately, if Apple gets its way, iPhone and iPad users will have a gimped internet experience.

Although, Yelp does have a huge head start as it has passed nine million reviews recently (something the others don’t offer). The location based check-ins do offer some credibility to Yelp’s reviews and also an easy way for users to participate without having to write a review. Yelp also has an awesome iPhone application that uses augmented reality. Basically, you hold your phone with camera facing out, and it uses your location and the compass in your iPhone to show you building locations and reviews in real-time. Click here for a demo.

As one of the major players, Foursquare is not going out without a fight. Ian Paul from PCWorld.com reports that Foursquare has partnered with the TV Network Bravo to create its own Bravo based location game. Users will be able to follow “The Real House Wives,” “Top Chef,” and “Shear Genius” across the United States with the opportunity to get prizes and a chance to be entered into sweepstakes. This partnership marks the first attempt for a large company to invest in a promotion with one of these location based social media sites. It will be intriguing to see if Bravo will be able to generate enough buzz to get people to want to participate.

Even though Foursquare gets most of the media hype, the most alluring location based site may be MyTown. Launched by three ex-employees of the ever-so-popular Blizzard team (creators of the Diablo and World of Warcraft franchises), they know a thing or two about the gaming industry. To begin, users check-in to new locations (like every other site) and receive online currency. Once you have accumulated enough cash you are allowed to purchase certain buildings. Then everyone who checks-in after your purchase pays you rent à la Monopoly. You can expand your empire by gobbling up real estate, and you even gain levels that are determined by your amount of check-ins. There are even gaming strategies posted by users that aim to help you level up faster. All of this sounds very much like an online game, although this one does have a basis in reality. What is most impressive about MyTown is that they have already surpassed GoWalla and Foursquare to become the most popular location-based social game for the iPhone, and they only started in December of 2009.

These sites are banking on the trend of social gaming, and so far the results have been surprising. While not much money has been made yet don’t think that the MyTown team isn’t aware. They already helped create the world’s most popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game (which is a pay-per-month subscription). I have to give them a slight edge in being able to monetize their site’s popularity.

I still think that it will take companies a while to see the importance of this new breed of social media. For example, it took Twitter about 5 years to become mainstream; perhaps the learning curve will be shorter this time. Either way, this is an important trend for any business to follow, because of the impact it could have on the future of marketing for small and large businesses alike. It will take time before the dust clears from this battle and the true champion emerges (if one at all), but the site or two that do come out victorious will have a stranglehold on the new tools to influence countless potential customers. And that makes this a trend worth following.

For more info check out the great blog, Location Awhere, which is fully devoted to this topic. Also check out the social media marketing services that AI has to offer.

When you hear “Just do it” or “Think Different“, what comes to mind? If you’ve been conditioned enough, you’ll recognize that the two phrases are the taglines of Nike and Apple. The same thing goes for other taglines like “Who ya gonna call” (Ghostbusters) and “Snap! Crackle! Pop!” (Kellogg’s Rice Krispies). These taglines stick for two reasons, you’ve heard them often, and they’re well designed. If those are the two factors for tagline success, then it’s easy to write a good tagline, right?

Components of Successful Taglines

Unfortunately, a good tagline isn’t going to be that easy for you to coin. In an article on How Stuff Works, Timothy Foster describes the criteria for the “perfectly-formed tagline”. His components include making it memorable, referencing a key benefit, differentiating the brand, imparting positive feelings, and making it unusable by competitors. Every tagline you know nailed the first component. The line “Simply the best” is not memorable in any way, despite being used by more than 25 seperate businesses. Walmart’s taglines are good examples of referencing the benefit: “Always low prices” and “Save money, live better“. Not only are these memorable, but simply repeating them reminds you that Walmart has good prices. Taglines don’t need to reference this point to be successful though- Nike’s has literally nothing to do with benefits of their products, but remains incredibly effective. Subway and Quiznos are both very similar in that they are both franchised sub restaurants, and due to competition have very similar offerings. Their taglines however are quite different, and evoke completely opposite images. Subway’s “Eat Fresh” line appeals to health conscious people, while “M’m, m’m, m’m, m’m, m’m, toasty!“, Quiznos’ tagline, appeals to hungry people who want a hot sandwich. Two similar companies, starkly different taglines. The 4th point, imparting positive feelings, is another component that can be absolutely crucial, but also left out entirely. “The most trusted name in news“, CNN’s tagline, certainly fulfills this criterion well- as does Burger King with “Have it your way“. Both taglines are a good mix of components, though they fail to protect against the final criteria. If Wendy’s began using a tagline like “Exactly what you wanted“, Burger King’s tagline loses its uniqueness in the fast-food universe. To combat this, you can add brand uniqueness to the tagline, such as rhyming it with the brand name, or including the brand in the tagline. Petco’s tagline “(Petco), Where the pet’s go” is a good example of a tagline that would be very difficult to twist around for use by Petsmart or another competitor.  An excellent example of all 5 components in one tagline can be found in Raid bug poisons- “Raid kills bugs dead“. It’s memorable, references the key benefit, differentiates itself, imparts positive feelings, and is totally unusable by competitors.

Common Tagline Mistakes

So now you know the components of some of the most memorable taglines, what do you need to avoid in order to make yours good? Eric Swartz- self professed ‘Tagline guru’ and editor of taglineguru.com- lists 10 common mistakes people make when writing taglines. Though all the mistakes are commonly made, I’m only going to explain a few of them, since you have the benefit of the examples above.

• Being cliché and bland are the first two mistakes, and you see them all over the place. No matter how powerful it sounds “Innovation Through Computing” isn’t memorable, and its the sort of line that will hurt you rather than help.
• Imitating other taglines is something small business owners love to do, but is almost never a good idea. Ripping off Wendy’s “Where’s the beef?” tagline with “Where’s the meat?” may seem like a great idea at first, but it only makes people think of Wendy’s, and makes you look completely unoriginal.
• Self-centered taglines aren’t so bad when they are tied to huge companies, but they can sound awfully self-serving when tied to local ones. “The best tires in the world have Goodyear written all over them” is a self-centered corporate tagline, but it doesn’t make people think badly of Goodyear. “The smartest designer in Oregon” may have sounded like a great idea when you coined it, but it just makes you sound pompous and self-serving.
• Too many words can become an issue, as long taglines aren’t as memorable. The Goodyear line I just referenced can be mentally shortened to “The best tires are Goodyear“, but “John Doe plumbing will fix your leaks, pipes, and shower, since 1986” doesn’t get compressed so well, and is completely forgettable.

Swartz sums up the theory behind tagline length beautifully by saying “crispy thoughts lead to punchy messages“. “Just do it” is a punchy message. Lack of visibility is also a problem with tagline effectiveness. If it isn’t incorporated into every facet of your business, it will likely go unused and be completely ineffective. Place the tagline on business cards, signs, phone messages, emails- every place that it will fit.

Creating Your Own Tagline

Taking these things into account, how should you design your tagline? For starters, figure out the message you want to convey. Disneyland’s tagline “The happiest place on earth” is a good example of a clear message that makes people want to do something (IE Go to Disneyland). Panasonic’s “Slightly ahead of its time” tells people  that Panasonic products are state-of-the-art. Do you need to get people in the door, or have people remember you when they need something? Two popular trends to consider when thinking about your tagline are the one-word line such as Hankook Tires “Driven“, and the three-idea line such as Air France’s “New. Fast. Efficient“, or Chevrolet’s “Eye it. Try it. Buy it.”. The one-word tagline is likely not ideal for use by a small business, because it is best when associated with a known business. 3M’s “Innovation” tagline works for them because it conveys their strategy, and is paired with their logo, which is well known. “Innovation” wouldn’t work so well with many small businesses simply because they aren’t 3M. They won’t seem as innovative, and their logo, no matter how creative, won’t be nearly as recognizable. The three-idea line is much more suited to small businesses however. “Fast. Friendly. Local.” is an example of a generic tagline that would work well when applied to any number of businesses. “Us, helping you” is constructed on the basic formula of the three-idea line, and fits many of the components of good tagline design. Once you have come up with a decent idea for a tagline, be sure to test it in some way before moving ahead with it. Ask people around town, ask online, do whatever it takes to get a general consensus on the tagline’s quality before committing to it. Once you decide on a tagline, do everything you can to associate it with your business, and everything you can to make it stick.

The 360 Most Famous Business Taglines
The Top 10 Taglines
How Ad Slogans Work
The Tagline Guru

Disney, for example, has thrived by tying their brand to words like magical, dreams, fantasy, and creativity. In addition, their strategy accurately reflects these chosen words. As a kid, growing up in Florida meant visiting Disney every year or two. Even at a young age, it was easy to distinguish between a trip to Disney, and a trip to Six Flags Great Adventure. Both are theme parks, but the experiences are nothing alike. It’s like going to Circus de Soleil when you are expecting to see the Circus (no offense Ringling Brothers). Disney has a focused branding strategy that makes you feel like you are in a fantasy land. The scenery is extravagant, the rides are magical, and even the employees are called “cast members” and their uniforms “costumes”. Disney puts on one heck of a show.

To achieve the incredible brand that Disney now has requires determination, but most of all it requires consistency. After choosing words that best describe your business you must put them into action across your whole marketing strategy. Take Absolut Vodka for example. They have been running similar advertisements for over 20 years now. I’m sure you’ve seen at least one or two in a magazine or on a billboard. They ALWAYS have a bottle somewhere in the advertisement and a tag line that reads Absolut (fill in the blank with something to do with the picture). People remember these ads because they are all based on a central theme, and you see them over, and over, and over.

But running a strategy with out seeing the results is like driving without a map if you aren’t sure of the destination. Feedback from your customers lets you know if you are either on or off your strategic track. One way for larger companies to check is by using Brandtags.net. The results can be fascinating. I compared Apple and Microsoft; here is what the users had to say.

Microsoft (good) – Computers, Software, Windows

Microsoft (bad) – Boring, Evil, Big Brother

Apple (good) – Awesome, Design, Innovation

Apple (bad) – Over-priced, Cult, Pretentious

On the whole, Apple had a lot more positive words associated with its brand compared to Microsoft (this might have something to do with the cult). It is important to know what your customers think about your brand. If you can find that out you are on your way to knowing if your branding strategy is working. Branding guru Martin Lindstrom says “it takes three years for words, phrases, and sentences to be identified and accepted as belonging to specific brands.” So keeping consistent is even more important than ever to win the battle for a consumers mind, and perhaps one day your brand will be mentioned in the same breath with the likes of Disney or Google.

Just remember that consistency in your overall branding message is hugely important and determining the guidelines at the onset is crucial. Brand On… by Brandon