My Digital Coach Blog

Blogs and Social Media: Moving From Monitoring to Networking

Author: Brendon Craigie

In recent years, blogs and social media monitoring have become a fundamental part of the press office operation and many PR agencies' bread and butter services.

As social networking has matured, companies need to engage pro-actively to ensure their brands are effectively supported.

Traditional media such as magazines, newspapers and TV channels have increasing numbers of journalist-written blogs as part of their online presence, meaning a top tier of blogs are seen as being just as influential in the media landscape as their e-zines and print media counterparts. There has also been an increase in the number of business-led social networks, business users of blogs and micro-blogging tools such as Twitter and Google-owned Jaiku, and multimedia social sites like Flickr.

However, a huge portion of the blogosphere and social media landscape is not professionally produced and individually these sites do not have huge audiences. Collectively though, these smaller outlets comprise as much as 99 per cent of the social media landscape and together form a powerful force that the PR industry is looking to harness. As the majority of blogs and social media sites contain personal content written in the first person, viral issues and stories can spread quickly. The sites connect people and when issues spread virally across social networks, they become big news for organizations that they affect. This is why tracking blog buzz across the whole of the web is critical for reporting on brand image, online coverage, and building a picture of customer perceptions.

An example of how effective a viral campaign can be, was when an online grass-roots campaign was formed on the social network Facebook. Protesting against an overdraft charge that the bank HSBC was imposing on recent graduate accounts, thousands of students joined forces online through a viral Facebook group which generated massive media attention, and forced a u-turn at HSBC. Within just a few weeks of the group launching, the bank scrapped the overdraft charges.

Over the last year, the fact that blogs impact a company's brand image online has become more established. Marketing, PR and communications departments are increasingly exposed to the impact blogs have on a brand's reputation, whether that's negative coverage of a product or an online petition or a campaign across social networks. As this issue has gathered momentum, companies have realized that blogs and social media need to be actively managed not just monitored.

Some progressive brands are already doing this successfully. US retail bank Wells Fargo for example has a team dedicated to responding online to bloggers' issues and complaints in order to increase positive sentiment around the brand online and reduce the amount of negativity that might emerge.

What caused the need to move from monitoring to engagement? Early adopters have led the charge. And the masses have followed. We are seeing social media's evolution in the business ecosystem move from early adopter to mass market status and web tactics are rapidly becoming better understood tactically and strategically as part of the PR mix. The challenge is to turn the opportunity into action.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/public-relations-articles/blogs-and-social-media-moving-from-monitoring-to-networking-638046.html

About the Author:

Brendon Craigie works for Hotwire, an international public relations consultancy specialized in technology PR.

Their digital media practice specializes in counselling companies in the Web 2.0 sector, such as web site infrastructure tools and services, digital and internet marketing services and information providers.

Internet Marketing and Invisible List Building

Author: Titus Hoskins

Copyright (c) 2008 Titus Hoskins

When I first started online marketing I kept hearing the so-called gurus shouting "The Money Is In Your List!" Up until that time the only list that meant anything to me was probably my grocery list. However, as I quickly became familiar with web marketing, list building became one of my key goals.

Mainly because list building is one of the vital elements to your Internet marketing success. It can play an important role in increasing your sales, getting repeat targeted traffic to your sites and a perfect vehicle for branding your product or company. Moreover, your list can be a primary source of business relationships which will help you build your online business since these contacts can be the cornerstones of your online marketing.

While I have fulfilled my main ambition of working full-time on the net, I have not as yet achieved my goal of reaching 100,000 subscribers. When I first started, my goal was getting 1,000 subscribers which I quickly passed, then it was 10,000 which was much harder to reach... getting to 100,000 will take much more time and effort but I believe I will get there eventually.

Maybe that number is a bit foolish, mainly because I learned long ago it is not the size of your list that counts, but how responsive it is. Still, it helps to have a goal set for yourself... and a 100k subscriber list is not an unreachable number especially when you're talking about the Internet. There are probably more than a few pimply faced teenagers out there who have gotten triple that number of subscribers just by placing some silly videos on YouTube.

Many marketers also make the mistake that list building is all about sales and forget that your list is much more than just for monetary gain. It can be the basis for a whole wealth of ideas and interaction that goes well beyond how many sales you can squeeze out of your list. The really savvy marketers use their lists for market research, product development and treat their lists as a knowledge resource they can tap into, time and time again.

Your list building can also be the foundation of your own vibrant online community. A community that's interactive and a great source of both ideas and business contacts. Probably the best example of this type of community building would be those communities that spring up through the social networking media sites... and Twitter would be a good example of this type of list building.

Invisible List Building

In studying and using lists over the years, some things have really surprised me. As an affiliate marketer I quickly realized most of my list building was invisible! This happened when I was fairly new at the marketing game, I had trouble with one of my site's web host and I had to move the whole site to a different server and my site was down for several days... but the strange thing was my online sales from this site still kept coming even though my site was down.

I was totally puzzled (I can be rather slow sometimes!) until I realized or rather learned the marketing power of cookies. Almost all of the affiliate programs I was promoting on my site were using cookies to mark the traffic or clicks coming from my site as my referrals. If anyone of these referrals made a purchase in the next 30, 60, 90 or more days - I would get credit for the sale.

My site was down, but because I had a whole list of cookied buyers lined up to purchase these affiliate products, my sales still kept coming. I was fairly new at this web stuff then and this was a real eye-opener for me. I started joining those affiliate programs that gave me the longest time-frame with their cookies. Most are around 30 days but there are quite a few that will give 365 days. Some affiliate programs such as Ken Evoy's Site Build It and Marlon Sanders' products even give you a life-time cookie.

In affiliate marketing using these "cookies" to build up hundreds of lists of "invisible customers" can be a very effective marketing strategy. You might not see these lists, but they're quietly working for you in the background, bringing in sales even if your site is down or even when you have stopped a particular campaign.

Of course, the key here again, is how targeted is your marketing. You could have a million cookied customers lined up but if they have no real interest in your product - they won't turn into buying customers. You must get the potential customer who has shown an interest in your product, onto your invisible cookie list. That's why ranking high in organic search results for your chosen keywords plays a vital role in how much you earn online, especially if you're into affiliate marketing. Going the PPC (Pay Per Click) route can also work but the profit margins are much closer.

Nor should you ignore building an actual opt-in list of customers to your autoresponder system in this whole process. Many marketers also try to "cookie" their actual opt-in lists as soon as possible in order to boost their sales. Your invisible cookie lists can work in conjunction with your so-called real lists. Along those same lines, one of my most effective marketing strategies is to use "micro" list building which is building hundreds of small lists of customers for each affiliate product that I promote. In the process of building these lists of potential customers, my first goal is to get these customers "cookied" with my affiliate ID. Then no matter if they buy directly from you or from some other link on the web; you still get credit for the sale.

Another effective marketing technique to use with your lists is to promote a whole group of related brand name products and MAKE SURE you cookie your list with ALL these different products so that no matter which one they eventually choose to purchase, you will still get credit for the sale. This way as a marketer you can come across as a helpful neutral third party pointing out the benefits and disadvantages of each product rather than a pushy salesperson pushing one product at your list. Nobody likes a pushy salesperson, so be a helpful friend instead.

Don't ignore the effectiveness of these cookies or invisible lists in your online marketing. Used properly they can increase your sales dramatically. You can have hundreds of these invisible cookied lists working for you on the web. When you get down to the actual numbers, a list of 100,000 subscribers can pale in comparison. So next time anyone mentions list building to you, just remember you can always go incognito!

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-articles/internet-marketing-and-invisible-list-building-638043.html

About the Author:

The author is a full-time online marketer who has numerous niche sites. If you want to learn how to make your online marketing much more effective by building your lists try here: list building Or you can try our popular: list building ecourse2008 Titus Hoskins. This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays attached.

Latest Trend of Uploading Videos Online

Author: Nisha Garg

With the induction of posting video files in the internet it has become extremely exciting for people who can now upload and share videos with others and even see the person to whom one is talking. This facility has thus invoked in a sentiment in people who believe it to be one of the best methods to communicate.

The user-friendly features of the technology make it extremely simple for people to upload videos clips and files with ease. The online video sharing has thus become a very common activity with users of this technology. People feel great about the benevolence offered by this technology. This advanced internet based facility allows people to upload video, share photos and transfer files to others with ease.

The user-friendliness of the system makes uploading of videos further simple. Now, the user just has to browse for the video clip stored in the PC and then upload it with the help of the link provided by the website. Once it is done, the end users can easily view the uploaded video on their own computer screen. So, the technological aspect is definitely advanced and solves a number of problems relating to communication and seamless connectivity options.

Information about the websites providing such options so as to upload video clips and video files is available in the internet. People can simply search for such sites and use them for communicating with others. There are a number of such websites that offer telephony options with the simultaneous provisions of sharing of files, videos and photos. Not only this, data transfer in the form of messages is also possible with such websites.

The number of websites which now provide video uploading facility, has grown quite rapidly. This event has taken place simultaneously with the event of an increase in the number of users who are using the feature of video uploading. So, definitely there remains immense scope for users of the service to fulfill their dreams relating to their business as well as personal lives. It definitely boosts the confidence of people who are users of video uploading services.

This service, however, continues to draw the attention of people for being a great means to upload videos and share photos. This has irrevocably brought a tremendous difference in the way people share the precious moments of their life with their loved ones.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/video-articles/latest-trend-of-uploading-videos-online-630710.html

About the Author:

Have fun with the latest trend. Upload videosonline through video sharing service.

Effective Tips on Adsense For Good Profit

Author: Balakrishna G

This article will guide you on Adsense tips like adhering to Google's Terms of service (TOS), policies, rules and regulations of the program. These TOS may be regarding placing of ads, quality content, webmaster rules and clicks etc.

First of all please adhere to Google's Terms of service (TOS), policies, rules and regulations of the program. These TOS may be regarding placing of ads, quality content, webmaster rules and clicks etc.,

Do not click on your own ads: We may come across some of them who click on their own ads to earn a quick money and getting banned from adsense. But in some cases we click our own ads by mistake which we need to avoid. In case if you want to view the landing page of the ad, you can directly check thru the Internet explorer rather than clicking on our own ads. Google keeps record of all clicks.

Do not place ads exceeding the adsense requirement. For better result place few ads per page. You can try placing in different locations. Usually, medium rectangular type ads provides good results. It is suggested to place ads inbetween the body of web page.

Now coming to content of website which is the base of website and Adsense. DO NOT place Google ads on the web pages with no content. Google pays for the ads displayed on the content page. Your website should have a good quality content. Please try not to have a duplicate content which you may get from various sources.

Please follows website rules strictly. Your website should have a friendly navigation. Readers should not have any problem while navigating your webpages. It is better to have a sitemap. Do not display Google ads on a website which is under construction.

Now lets talk about how to earn more revenue from Adsense. The first only way is "Traffic". More traffic means more hits which means more earnings and more conversions, more money. But the questions is how to drive traffic?

There are many ways to drive traffic like search engine ranking. However, we all know search engine ranking is  time consuming. Your website shall take several weeks/months to drive a reasonable traffic.

But there is another way to drive traffic instantly, that is buying traffic. For instance I have bought traffic from Google Adwords. The signing up process for Google Adwords is easy. You can visit Google Adwords to sign up.

When I started using Google Adwords for driving traffic, I started getting lots of traffic but at the same time I was also paying towards Google Adwords ending up not making much profits. Then I started analyzing on costing and ad placements. I found that my CTR - Click thru rate is only about 40% to 50% which is not so good for profit. Later, I started placing ads in different directions and with different sizes of ads.

I found most of big banner ads on the top of the page and medium rectangular ads inbetween the content working fine. My CTR went up around 65%. which is reasonably good. However, CTR around 70% is said to be very good for good profit. Even after 65% of CTR I was not able to make much profit. There was something wrong with my website. No, actually, there was excess investment towards Adwords.

Hence, I started working on Adwords costing vs. Adsense earnings. I found that, I was paying to Adwords equivalent to what I was getting from Adsense. This was my main key point for profit. Finally, I selected some low cost keywords from Adwords and fixed CPC lower than the adsense CPC. Now, I am getting reasonable profits.

Finally, we shall conclude with the understanding that for earning good profit from Adsense it is just not enough working on ad placement and ad campaign but it is also equally important working on costs.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-articles/effective-tips-on-adsense-for-good-profit-629321.html

About the Author:
Balakrishna writes articles on various subjects. You can find more related articles at http://www.Article-Live.com>Article Live-Free Articles and Blogs You can also refer to http://www.fundsfrominternet.com>Online Business Articles Directory for business related articles.

How to Recognize and Avoid Phishing Scams

The Common Craft is really watching out for us now with their new video, Phishing Scams in Plain English, a short guide to recognizing and avoiding phishing scams. What a great topic and a very timely video!  These types of scams are more prevalent than ever with the recent credit crisis. As entrepreneurs, this is such important information and explained clearly and simply for anyone to understand.