Posts Tagged ‘Internet’
January 19, 2012 at 6:52 pm
By Bob Speyer, Web Success Team
The Internet just flexed its political muscle with the don’t-mess-with-the-Web campaign in response to an anti-piracy bill before Congress. The online community is fearful that the bill passage could lead to online censorship and put many websites out of business.
Continue reading “The Internet Strikes Back with Blackout” »
December 16, 2011 at 3:05 pm
By Janette Speyer and Alison Brown, Web Success Team
The Internet is about to change. Are you ready for the switch? ICANN, the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers, has been working on a domain overhaul that will allow you to have a Top-Level Domain (gTLD) that uses a .yourbrand extension instead of .com, .net or .org. This change has the potential to open the door for endless online branding possibilities. For Coca Cola, they can purchase the extension .coke and then create a number of different URL’s that help build their brand.
On January 12, 2012, the world’s largest branding revolution will begin, as ICANN will start accepting gTLD applications. Prices for owning the rights to various domain’s is very pricey and opens the door to a number of bidding wars for companies fighting for rights over general domain names.
Continue reading “.YourBrand…Are you ready for the ICANN domain switch?” »
December 1, 2011 at 6:19 pm
By Bob Speyer, Web Success Team
Nothing is more appreciated and respected in business than a referral. It shows confidence in your brand, hands on experience and the ability to connect with people. It is the bi-product of a successful business–customer relationship. In today’s competitive business climate and the growing influence of the Internet to affect decision making, the marketing paradigm has changed.
Continue reading “Relationship Marketing to Score BIG in 2012” »
February 22, 2011 at 5:23 pm
By Bob Speyer, Web Success Team
Marketers need to adjust to the demands of the marketplace. Today’s younger generation are further distancing themselves from us older “geeks” by redefining how they look or view the world. One obvious example is the Social Revolution that began in Tunis, energized in Egypt and spread to the entire Arab world.
Today’s youth is increasingly being served their information through Facebook and Twitter and less and less through other more traditional media such as blogs and broadcast news. Does this mean that Facebook is going to replace blogs among the younger generation?
Continue reading “Are Facebook and Twitter Replacing the Need to Blog Among the Younger Generation?” »
April 29, 2010 at 12:44 pm
By Bob Speyer, Web Success Team
One of my all time favorite movies is Rodney Dangerfield’s, Back to School, about a father who returns to attend college along side his son. While the parallels are not even, the dawning of the Internet Age has left us wide-eyed and scrambling to attend an online marketing event and monetize our knowledge.
Going “back to school” is a given for online marketers. Learning never stops, and in the online environment, it’s all about change, innovation, emerging technologies, strategies and tactics. You need to keep up-to-date.
Don’t Accept the Hype
With so many established or new conferences, seminars and trade shows to choose from, where do we separate the snake oil from the Holy Grail? Who do you believe and how much is value blended with true educational content?
Like with any product or service you are considering to purchase, research comes first. Let me share my views and insights in helping you decide which events you should attend.
Guidelines to Help You Decide the Right Event for Your Business:
Is More Better? The most expensive conferences are not necessarily the best. Sometimes, multiple day conferences are too overwhelming, fatigue sets in and learning declines. I am a firm believer in attending intensive one-day seminars with multiple speakers or an online series of events spread over days or weeks where you can listen to archived sessions.
Match Needs with Topics. Stay focused and determine if the topics will directly benefit your company’s marketing vision and deficiencies. One main criterion I use in selecting an event is if there will be in-depth case studies that implement theory and tactics into actionable results. Too often have I attended sessions where speakers cite studies, but do not back up their statements with concrete examples.
Research the Event. Find out about organizers, sponsors, speakers, and yes, fellow attendees – past and present. Read blog posts about past and upcoming events. Use social media to ask what others valued most from the event. Pay attention to the negative comments as well.
Set Clear Objectives. After choosing which event to attend, have an advanced game plan. Detail ten things you want to achieve or take away. It’s not enough to listen to lectures and interact with attendees. Ask relevant questions to benefit your business and network to make contacts you can actually use post-event.
Implement What You Learn. Knowledge for knowledge sake is an admirable pursuit, but we also live in the real world. Don’t forget to implement the strategies and tactics you learned to improve your business or to enhance your marketing efforts.
Two Recommended Online Marketing Events
The Web Success Team will be attending two online marketing events in May 2010: The Online Marketing Virtual Summit and the Social Media Success Summit. Both events are online. One is free, while the other charges. We recommend both as excellent learning centers that provide educational content for the novice to the marketing veteran and are excellent value for the money and time.
The Online Marketing Virtual Summit is a free one-day event on Thursday, May 27. The event showcases eight online marketing areas including Social Media, Search Marketing, Web Analytics, Integrated Marketing, Online Advertising/Mobile, Website Content, Email Marketing and Demand Generation. Featured speakers represent a good cross-section of the online marketing community from Google, Wharton Interactive Media Initiative,Intuit and Kodak, to name a few. If you can’t attend the live event, register anyway, and you can listen to the archived sessions at a later date. I’ve previously attended the Online Marketing Summit one-day, in-person event, and was impressed with the educational content, speaker interaction and absence of vendors trying to sell you something.
The Social Media Success Summit is more ambitious, stretching over three weeks from May 4-25 and includes social media gurus Guy Kawasaki, Mari Smith and Michael Stelzner along with marketers from Home Depot, Dominos, Whole Foods and Best Buy. These recognized authorities will reveal the latest techniques and proven business-building tactics you can use to immediately benefit from social media. It should be a virtual brain-fest of great information all for $597.
We Want to Hear from YOU!
For those of you who will attend these events, I welcome your feedback. Send reactions to bob@websuccessteam.com or comment on this post. I will incorporate your feedback in a follow-up review of the Online Marketing Virtual Summit and the Social Media Success Summit. To your web success!
By Bob Speyer, Web Success Team
Color is fundamental to the way we view the Internet, or more to the point a website. It can influence your reaction and viewing experience and even your buying habits. Color selection often times is more intuitive than thoughtful. This article will discuss the use of color for business site development and offer a few guidelines:
Continue reading “How to Choose Color for Web Success: 5 Marketing Take-A-Ways” »
February 23, 2010 at 3:18 pm
By Bob Speyer, Web Success Team
Trust is one of the most important yet overlooked “intangibles” on the Internet. However, it is key to a decision makers’ mindset whether to give your offerings serious consideration. The Internet is littered with amazing claims and broken promises. So what can you do to instill confidence or trust when a viewer lands on you site looking for a needed product or service? Here are a few guidelines to follow to build trust and increase your sales:
Your Website Should Be Simple, Uncluttered and Informative
You only get one chance at a first impression. Since our lives are complicated enough, your site must be easy to understand and engage the viewer in less than 10 seconds. The simpler the better and the easier to comprehend, the more likely your brand will instill trust. People respond to organization and a clear sincere message. Psychologically, think of whom we trusted first — our parents. If you try to do too much, you will frustrate your viewer and create a negative reaction.
Offer Something Special
We are conditioned to respond to a deal. In fact, promotions are some of the most visited web pages. A promotion may range from a simple discount to packages where you get more value than for individual services. Again, you want to instill trust, so offer a warranty, guarantee or some consumer recourse that is clearly stated. You want to be as transparent as possible.
Use Client Testimonials and Case Studies
People recognize that testimonials are hand picked and hold minimal value. Yet when supported by case studies they can make a convincing reason to read and respect them. Plus if you have recognizable customers, it can create a shared brand appeal. People will connect the dots and reason that if a trusted brand has used this company, then they are that much more appealing.
Use the New Social Medias to Humanize Your Brand
We all respond more to real people, not just a corporate entity. That’s where social media marketing can fill out your resume. Create social profiles on Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter and be active in their use. Placing their icons on your website in a viewable spot encourages prospective customers to view your profiles and fill in any questionable gaps.
Building relationships online will give your brand a more human component. Using employees, their pictures and their comments is equally effective and rounds out your company.
Authority Speaks
Knowledge is respect and the more your brand is promoted online, the more credible you become. One of the ways to be viewed as a authority in your field is to create a blog and actively write about your field. Articles that are keyword rich will be circulated throughout the Internet, draw targeted attention and help promote your brand. Writing blogs will also let people view your personality, knowledge and your sense of humor. It makes you “real.” Also, if you won an industry award, written a book or you are a guest speaker at an industry event, then these should be prominently displayed on your website.
Belong, Join, Affiliate
Another key factor in building trust is showing people that you are active in your community or your industry. Are you a Chamber of Commerce member, associated with an industry organization, active in a charity, or a member of the Better Business Bureau? Participation shows commitment, involvement, energy — and respect.
Be Accessible and Consistent
Once the initial barrier is crossed and a potential customer is interested, you must not disappoint them. Be available to talk to them, keep appointments and be consistent in your promises. Dependability is a key factor in maintaining trust and credibility. Have your contact information clearly displayed on your site above the fold; respond to their inquiries within 24 hours; and offer good advice and interest in their situation. These guidelines will help you assess your current website and activities. The bi-product of building trust is an increase in sales that will lead to web success. If your website does not reflect these core components, then people will go to the competition. By giving people reasons to trust you, they will.
October 27, 2009 at 6:43 pm
By Bob Speyer and Kristin Tomlinson – Web Success Team
The speed of the way we communicate has morphed into an Internet monster. Today we can virtually work in anywhere on the planet. Hotels, planes, cell phones — anywhere we can get our WiFi fix. Yesterday’s news is today’s fish warp. Our gratification is instantaneous, but like anything, be careful what you wish for. There is always a downside to hyper-productivity.
From Tortoise to Virtual Hare.
It’s hard to comprehend that it was only a couple of years ago when present day technology had yet to evolve, and business folks alike carried serious stress about meeting specific deadlines, worried about finishing work on time before departing on vacation, or were hesitant of traveling, not because of the fear of flying, but because of the anxiety that their future destination would not contain the necessary accommodations needed to get work done and lost productivity. Offices were tense, and businesses were limited.
Looking back, it would give any business savvy worker cold sweats to wonder how they could get their present job done efficiently. In America there’s a saying that we “live to work,” and with that accompanies the ideal that we have the divine right to work whenever and wherever we are.
Welcome to the land where those concerns have become extinct, and a new species has staked its claim on planet earth. It’s the virtual office.
Cars, Online Trade Shows and In-Flight WiFi. . . Oh My!
The Internet has indeed become elastic, stretching its reach into various places once deemed impossible, but now a reality. In this day and age, we have wireless Internet in our cars and on our phones; a tool that has acquired so much attention in the past couple of years that it has actually turned into a major problem. The Internet application on cell phones has only added to the controversy of cell phone use while driving, and Congress has created a law banning such use, officially putting that application in “time out” indefinitely.
Even traveling business people have the Internet in literally every country they travel to, allowing them to stay connected to the office from their “business away from home,” thousands of miles away. Everyone has jumped on the WiFi bandwith. Hotels that aren’t connected lose business. Today it is as essential as in room telephones and bathrooms.
The Web Success Team recently took a business trip to New York. Just before returning to Los Angeles, we had a rush project that “couldn’t wait.” We finished what we could in our room on the laptop, took a cab to Newark; connected to the airport WiFi to “kill 2 hours”; reconnected on the plane via gogoinflight, finished the job; emailed the completed files; then kicked back to relax for the duration of the 6 hour flight. A short time later, the client emailed from her Blackberry that they received the files, reviewed them and thanked us. Just another day at the “office!”
The Internet “Fix”. . . Good or Bad?
The Internet has come along way from the confinements of a cubicle to expanding its power to the farthest borders of the world. Not only has it offered its services to help strengthen and build your business online, but it has also allowed people to stay connected. It’s funny how you can’t imagine a world without it, but yet there was once a time when it didn’t exist at all. Looking back, it must have been an anxious time, not being connected 24/7 – or has this ultimate Internet fix made us more nervous and less laid back with even more stringent deadlines? Makes you wonder.
