FSC|Inter@ctivehttp://www.fscinteractive.com/News.aspxFSC|Inter@ctive Newsen-ushttp://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rssmckenzie@fscinteractive.com (Info)mckenzie@fscinteractive.com (Info)Davos Bound BerrentMySpace, The Wall Street Journal and the World Economic Forum. Sloane, a member of the FSC Interactive team and recent transplant to New Orleans, has quickly shown great passion for the city as evidenced in her winning  video entry which stresses her involvement in the rebuilding of New Orleans.

Sloane will join the Davos press corps and use the MySpace platform to report on conference news and interview world leaders about issues, documenting her Davos experience via blogging/vlogging and Tweeting. In addition to rubbing elbows with the top online influencers, like Robert Scoble, Arianna Huffington and Micheal Arrington of Tech Crunch, she will also be representing New Orleans as a cultural ambassador and sharing our successes with over 1,400 top-level executives from the world’s leading companies and government representatives of the world’s top 25 economies. We’re talking Eric Schmidt of Google, Bill & Melinda Gates, Nicolas Sarkozy, President of France, and  Queen Rania Al Abdullah…just to name a few.

“It has been a lifelong dream of mine to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos,” said Berrent. “It’s an incredible opportunity to report on world leaders and the future of the global economy. In the aftermath of the devastating earthquake in Haiti, I’d like to focus on the world’s role in the recovery effort. I’d also like to explore how economic development, specifically, microfinance and educational opportunity, play a role in changing the face of world economies and helping to break the poverty cycle.”

Be sure to follow her journeys on MySpace, Twitter and The Causemopolitan.]]>2010-01-28 Sawubona Marketing - Do you see me?Chris Brogan as the speaker.  For those of you not familiar with Chris Brogan, he is to social media, what Elvis is to Rock n Roll – the King. He is also co-author with Julien Smith of a great book, Trust Agents that is well worth the read. 

Yesterday Brogan spoke of his "Sawubona" marketing approach. “Sawubona" is Zulu for "I see you".  What a great concept –actually seeing your customers and listening to them - talking to them and connecting.  I suggest everyone reading this take a minute to think about what that means to you and come up with 5 ways in the next 6 months to better your marketing and “see” your customers.

A great example of this approach literally occurred during the presentation as Brogan mentioned Zappos! as an example of Sawubona. In our Tweet stream  @fscnola mentioned the brand.  For those of you interested check out FSC tweets from January 14 for great Brogan insight and witty remarks or search #amanola for even more. Within 1 minute of the Zappos mention, a reply from Zappos – a real one, not canned, not pre written – a real human reacting to me.

Really?  Honestly?  A large company like Zappos! actually took the time to respond to my tiny comment on their brand?  Of course they did – because they are listening, engaging and “seeing” their customer in social media as part of their marketing initiative.  And you know what?  It works.

Are you online and listening to your brand?  Do you know what your customers are saying?  Do you “see” them?

FSC offers services in online marketing including brand reputation management and social media strategy.
]]>2010-01-15 A Tale of Two Twitter ToolsIn order to manage a Twitter account it is absolutely necessary to have a desktop application to filter and organize the constant stream of content. I have always been a TweetDeck enthusiast. I dabbled with Seesmic briefly, but always opted for the clean user friendly interface of TweetDeck. In addition to updating multiple accounts at once, you can easily set up searches and separate users into groups with a click of a button. Add in the Facebook updates and the ability to sort columns left and right...well, consider me smitten.


Tweetdeck 2.JPG


Despite my love for TweetDeck, there were a few things lacking. Enter CoTweet. CoTweet is a great resource to communicate amongst a group of people Tweeting on behalf of the same account. You can schedule tweets in advance which is perfect for upcoming events. You can also tag specific Tweets and assign to another person either via CoTweet or through an e-mail.  As its name suggests CoTweet makes it easy to share responsibilities and work harmoniously. It rivals Tweetdeck in ease of use, ability to update multiple accounts and quick search capabilities.

CoTweet.JPG


Torn between two Twitter apps…What to do? Use both, of course!


Every day there are new applications and it is impossible to stay on top of every shiny new object. Instead, decide exactly what you want to do and seek out the resource that most efficiently accomplishes your goals. In my case, TweetDeck and CoTweet are the most convenient tools to help me navigate the Twittersphere on a daily basis.


What tools do you use?



]]>2009-12-28 Weeding out Unqualified CPC Terms
Negative and excluded keywords are as important as every other basic element of a campaign – they weed out irrelevant and unwanted clicks so you don’t pay for them.   So where are you prompted to add or find these terms when you set up your account?  Answer – you aren’t.

If you are one of those unfortunate people who are running a campaign and don’t know what I am talking about – listen and listen well.

Negative and excluded keywords can be added to your campaign to prevent your ad from showing on terms that may be close but not pertain to your business so you can prevent paying for the click.

Example:
The search term you are bidding on is “praline”

When you purchase this term in broad match in Yahoo or Google you are allowing yourself to show up for ANY search related to this term, which can be good to capture a large amount of searches relating to praline, but what about the ones you don’t want?

Examples of good searches you will show for are: chocolate pralines, homemade pralines, best pralines, New Orleans pralines.  But what about those terms you would not like to show for: praline recipe, cheap pralines, making pralines, praline history.  Negative and excluded keywords can eliminate these unwanted searches.

In order to eliminate these searches you add terms in the correct section of the campaign so that those terms, when combined with the keyword you are bidding on will NOT show.  Negatives in this example would be: recipe, cheap, making, history.

Both Yahoo and Google are different, but I have provided links below for you to read more and see exactly where to go in your campaign and add them.

Yahoo Excluded Keywords
Google Negative Keywords

Additionally, a good tool to use when setting up the campaign to help to choose negatives to add is the Google Keyword Tool.  Add your main terms and use the tool to find related terms.  For those you do NOT want to have included, make a list and add the term that makes it irrelevant as a negative.

Happy Bidding!]]>2009-12-03 Put That in Your Pipe and Sort it...and Filter it...and Translate it...and...
Do you search different websites for information daily? Check.

Do you spend more time that you should browsing sites for information? Check.

Would you like to develop a more efficient way to aggregate all of your information in one place? Um, duh. Check.

There are hundreds of uses for Yahoo! Pipes but my personal favorite is aggregating different websites and even twitter searches into one place. Perfect for keeping track of what's happening within your professional industry, with your favorite sports team or even with you as an individual.

For example, I am a huge New Orleans Saints fan (who isn't?) and I want to keep track of anything and everything that is said about them. I might set up a Google Alert. Maybe check out Social Mention, nola.com or hit the ESPN webpage -- but that's still bouncing from site to site and wasting time searching.

Maybe I'll just Google "New Orleans Saints" and see what pops up, but then what if I miss something? Oy, what to do!

That is where Yahoo! Pipes steps in and saves the day (and your time). You can take any website, input them into the pipe, filter key words and just like that, you've got all your Saints info in one place.

So I take my Twitter Search for "New Orleans Saints," the ESPN website I've been browsing and the nola.com site I was reading, add a few keywords to filter out stories I don't want, pipe out and...

pipe.JPG

BOOM! I've created my New Orleans Saints Pipe -- everything I need or want to know, in one place at one time.

Plus! You can customize your pipe based on what you are looking for. You can filter out stories and items by blocking specific terms, dates, times, numbers, etc. Or permit only stories that contain specific terms, dates, times, numbers etc.

For example block item.description does not contain "New Orleans Saints" or permit item.description contains "New Orleans Saints."

steps.JPG 
You can also add-on some pretty nifty bells and whistles like the location builders which converts a description into a geographical location. Or the rename operator which will rewrite the information based on what you want, for example a retweet bot will add RT @ at the beginning of the information received. You can even add a translator to convert information from one language to another.

I am already starting to have a nerdy break-down.

But wait! There's more! The best part about Yahoo! Pipes is that you can turn your pipe into an RSS Feed that populates your webpage. Or, you can turn the pipe into a badge for your blog. Or even get the results by email or phone eliminating your travel time on the internet altogether.

pipe2.JPG

But again, there are hundreds of ways to use Yahoo! Pipes. It's a great tool for, as they say, rewiring the web.

Check in on Thursday for Tips and Tricks of the trade!



]]>2009-12-01 Fa La La La Localstudies show that shoppers are turning to social media for product reviews, research and recommendations. Social media outlets are free and a great way for small businesses to have a personable relationship with buyers. Here are a few ways to localize your marketing efforts to maximize your Holiday marketing dollars.

Local Twitter Search
Twitter is a great way to connect to customers or potential customers instantly. But, if you are spa located in New Orleans, you not likely interested in someone searching for a pedicure gift certificate in NYC. Luckily, a simple proximity boolean allows to search for keywords within a specific zip code. Just go to the Twitter Search page and type your keyword followed by near:your ZipCode and it will show all the conversations happening within the proximity.

Twitter Search Near.JPG

Geo-targeted ads
Google AdWords allows you to drill down by zip code and choose targeted sites within its Content Network by category or individual domains. Facebook has a $1 daily minimum that appeals to even the smallest marketing budgets. In addition to city-specific targeting, you can hone in on unique interests and even friends of your Fans.

Google Analytics Map Overlay
Google Analytics provides so much information on your site visitors it can easily become overwhelming. But, when you know what you are looking for it's an invaluable resource. In this case, the Map Overlay can tell you exactly where your visitors are coming from. When used with Goal Conversions you can even find out what geographic areas are spending the most money. You can use this to focus your attention on your most profitable regions and tailor messaging accordingly.


map overlay LA details.JPG

You Tube
Target understand the value of YouTube to drive Holiday sales. But, you don't need big box budgets to make an impact. After Google, YouTube is the second largest search engine. Odds are there are millions of people competing for your search terms and it's tough to get to the top listings on natural search. Not only is it potentially less competitive, but the Google search engines search YouTube as well, so you could end up in the top ranks there.  Think of ways you can create video content and use consistent keywords wherever possible- in captions, tags and Channel description.

Easy, right? Now you can take a break and go elf yourself.


]]>2009-11-18 Hey, Mister. Can I get a link? 3 Blogging basicsWordpress and Blogger make it easy for anyone to create a blog. Even Facebook's Notes application allows for easy updates with rich media formatting. But, lately I've noticed some rookie mistakes that distract from an otherwise thoughtful post. Writing for the web is different from writing for print and offers vast opportunities to enhance readers' experience. Here are 3 very simple rules of thumb that will improve your blog posts.

1. Title

Make your title interesting. Assume that your reader is scrolling through hundreds of posts a day. What's going to make yours stand out in someone's inbox or RSS feed? You've got one opportunity to grab someone's attention, so go for it with a headline that packs a punch. You can find many examples of killer titles at problogger.net as well as the elaborate analysis of what makes a post title stand out pictured below.

delicious-popular-analysis.png

Speaking of pictures...

2. Visuals
A picture is worth a thousand words and can do wonders to support a post. If you are writing about a new fashion line or culinary creation, imagery is key. An excellent example is a recent review of the Sucre holiday chocolate collection. Take a look. Tell me, what's more likely to get your mouth watering- an eloquent review or beautifully shot pictures of delicious chocolate goodness?



3. Links
It is a personal pet peeve when a blogger references a source without a hyperlink. If something is worth mentioning make it easily accessible to your reader. For example, if your post is inspired by a great article you read, link to it. The same goes with noting a Twitter user or Facebook page (yep, shameless FSC plug). Make it easy for your reader to follow someone you endorse.
Plus, everyone loves inbound links and they can help grow your social capital and online reputation. Now, of course you don't want to go overboard hyperlinking every other word and should be conscious about directing traffic away from your site. Whenever possible, make sure that your link opens in a new window or tab. That way, if users navigate away from your page and continue to browse through multiple pages, you are still just click away.

These are just three simple tips to keep in mind when writing a blog post. There are a ton of other ways to optimize your online presence and we'll continue to share tools and tricks every week.  In the meantime, what do you look for in a blog post?




]]>2009-11-12 Wiki Wiki What??!Wikipedia is everywhere. Pretty much anything you type into Google will almost always result in a first page Wiki listing of some kind.

With that said, a Wikipedia entry for your company or organization is valuable for many things.  One is credibility – it gives searchers the impression that your organization is bigger and more legitimate it you have a Wiki entry.

Second is brand reputation management. Want to push down negative comments or feedback relating to your brand?  Beef up or create a Wikipedia entry or two or three relevant to what you do and who you are of course – and push those negatives to the next page.

And in my opinion, and most importantly it still has its use for SEO. Even though the link building for your site in Wikipedia might not work - you can create or add to a Wiki for terms you want to be found for - brand name or a description of your services – and if done right the listing will provide the ultimate goal - more ways for qualified visitors to get to your site.

In case you didn’t know, Wikipedia entries are all created and edited by you, me, us – the regular day-to-day users of the internet.  But before you get out there and create an entry or look for an existing one and start adding and editing it – and there are items to be careful of:

1. Don’t edit your own Wiki yourself - Countless entries get deleted when it is discovered they were started by an employee or company representative – find a fan to do it for you.

2. Make sure any new entry you contribute to includes references to back up the info – link to the source of the information.

3. After adding a new entry, be sure to build up that new entries PageRank with links to other Wikipedia pages – this will help your new entry actually show up in search.

Good luck and go Wiki!]]>2009-11-05 Who's Reading This, Anyway?Facebook Page (or group or profile) and then we wandered into Traffic. Site Traffic, that is. We asked that oh-so important and seemingly unanswerable question: Who's reading this anyway?

So, we started talking about Google Analytics -- we FSC gals love Google Analytics. The G.A. tool is capable of gathering information about traffic to and from your site including the most basic information like monthly traffic to more nitty-gritty like top content, referring sites, bounce rate and more.

But what if you only want the basics? Or what if you're searching for information about a site that isn't yours?

That's where sites like Quantcast and Compete step in, capable of sharing the most basic information including monthly traffic and unique visitors. While there are tons of sites out there to help measure your website and other website's traffic, these are the two I work most often with. Both are free and both are easy-peasy.

Quantcast, which has a very simple interface, allows you to copy and paste a link and within a matter of seconds the link is quantified.
quantcast1.JPG

quantcast2.JPG

You can choose to view traffic by day, week or month and choose a period of time ranging from one week to one year, depending on what you're interested in finding. You can also sort visitors by demographics and geography, if you're into exploring those options, as well as see traffic frequency and other sites which visitors have viewed. Plus, if you want to see how your site stacks up to the competition, you can compare up to four websites with Quantcast.

Compete works in a similar manner; you copy and paste a link and -- boom! -- in seconds you're able to view the site traffic. With Compete, you also get a quick review of referring sites and search terms and you can break down traffic by subdomain. Pretty neat, if you ask me.

compete2.JPG

compete3.JPGcompete4.JPG

So, next time you find yourself wondering -- who even reads this anyway? Click on over to one of these sites and see for yourself.

Come back next Tuesday for another tool to add to your toolbox!

]]>2009-11-03 Get Shorty- URL Shorteners
I have been a loyal BudUrl user since I first began tweeting. The interface is very user friendly and a free account allows you to track 250 URLs at a time.  As you can see below, you can create custom aliases, keep notes on the link, label separate categories or clients in addition to tracking the number of times the link was clicked. And the handy toolbar button makes it easy to quickly shrink and post.

budurl 2.JPG

But then in May, Twitter adopted bit.ly as it's default shrinker. Enter new shiny object. The definite advantage that bit.ly has over BudUrl is the ability to see how many time the article has been historically by other people. You don't just see your click through rate (CTR).This means you can instantly see if a link is popular as well as gauge how your audience compares to the greater community. Another great option is the sidebar. If you come across a great read, click the sidebar and you can tweet directly from the site, as well as get real time stats.


Bit.ly.JPG

I can't officially say that am I bit.ly user, but the Twitter convenience and slick black interface, coupled with some pretty cool bells and whistles...tempting. At the end of the day, there will always be a new tool out there to try. Don't get distracted by every new gadget, but weigh your options based on your business needs. Define your problem and then seek the most efficient solution.

Check back next Tuesday for another tool to add to your toolbox.]]>2009-10-27 Facebook Part Two: Profile vs. Page
That is where Facebook Groups come in. Seemingly the best of what a page and profile have to offer, groups are often the top choice of people starting a Facebook account for a business. But, when you start a group, what are you really getting? What are the differences between a group and a page? And do they really matter?

Like choosing between a profile and a page, your decision regarding a group or a page should be based upon what you ultimately want to get from Facebook. Do you want the “quick-and-dirty” or “whole she-bang”?  

So I got to exploring the great world of Facebook Groups and here is what I’ve found:
fscblogimage2.JPG

Ultimately, when deciding what kind of account to create for your business you should take into consideration the size of your business and the time you have to commit to Facebook. The smaller you are or the less time you have, the more you should consider starting a group. But if you’ve got the time to maintain it, a Facebook page is like having another website
]]>2009-10-22 Ever Heard of Google Wonder Wheel?The Google Wonder Wheel is a wheel (of wonder) that will show you (the searcher) related search terms or keywords for you to use in the search query bar that give you more options to gain more relevant information.  These will be related terms that other Google searchers have used to gain results on other related and even perhaps better more refined terms.

Cool right?  It may not be something new in your toolkit – as a matter of fact the Google keyword tool and Google Insight can also offer suggestions - but the way they format it is easy to use and visually appealing, and search results are narrowed right there for you.

So how do I get to the Wonder Wheel? 

First of all you enter your query and click the “Show Options”

OMS show option.JPG

A list of options will appear on the left where you can select the Wonder Wheel.

OMS option.JPG

 

And voila! the Wonder Wheel with your original search query will appear on the screen with search results that relate to your original search.

Capture last.JPG

Interested in more wonderful terms?  Select one of the keyword options (I chose online marketing strategy) and another wheel will appear with those even more narrowed search results.

OMS wheel.JPG

You can go deeper and deeper into keyword selection to view various other related search queries that may be a more refined way of approaching your search string and immediately see your results.  Not a bad little freebie from Google to have in your mix of online marketing tools.

So that is the Google Wonder Wheel – it can be used to help you in your own search strategies for finding results or for search optimization, keyword selection for SEM or research.

Check back to the FSC blog each Tuesday for the Tech Tool of the Week.  Next Tuesday we will be discussing  URL shorteners.

]]>2009-10-20 Facebook Part One: Profile vs. Page

The other day I started thinking about the difference between pages and profiles on Facebook and I realized that I take for granted my familiarity with Facebook and sometimes I am too quick to recommend this over that. We go back and forth on this subject all the time – Which is better? For who is it better? Is there a better?

 

But it’s hard to know which account to choose without knowing what you’re getting into. So I took some time and really explored Facebook – something I haven’t done since it first came out. After about an hour or so of exploring my personal profile and some of the pages I’m a fan of (as well as some of the pages I am an administrator for) I discovered that there really aren’t that many differences.

 

Regardless, the differences are significant enough that you really ought to consider them when creating an account. So after my exploration of what Facebook has to offer, in true geek-fashion, I decided to make a matrix. Here is what I’ve found:fscblogimage.JPG

 

]]>2009-10-08 E-Mail- So easy it's dangerousMicheal Ferranti of Endai Worldwide, reminded us that e-mail is a one of the most useful marketing tools because people live and die by their Inbox. It is one of the simplest tools with the lowest barrier to entry. After all, almost everyone has an e-mail account. But, while it is one of the easiest tools to use, it is also one of the easiest to misuse.

Here are few 101 tips about e-mail marketing. To be fair, we aren't in the Direct Marketing business. But we hate spam.

DO investigate software before sending from your gmail account. For a small investment, you can opt for a system that will create professional templates, segment lists, track clicks and provide valuable tools to monitor recipient's behavior. Mail Chimp refers to you by name and compliments your hair, for a little added value.

DO test. Send e-mails at different times of the day. Try different messages and call to actions. Monitor responses and adjust accordingly.

DO consider how viewers will be receiving your mail. Optimize for different platforms, phone applications and text only versions.

DON'T add names to your database arbitrarily. Just because someone handed you a business card does not mean they want to receive your newsletter. Wait for people to opt in.

DO make it really easy for people to opt in. Clearly display a field to submit e-mails with a strong call to action explaining what people can expect. "Sign up for sales alerts." or "Enter for weekly recipe tips."

DO offer value. Think about why someone chose to receive your e-mail. Respect their time by providing relevant content.

Tell us what your must Do's are.  And, what are your pet peeves? Share to help spammers everywhere!
]]>2009-09-11 Feelin' GoodYesterday we met with one of our favorite New Orleans social entrepreneurs, Kyle Berner of Feelgoodz. Upon his travels through Thailand, he found a great pair of environmentally sustainable and incredibly comfortable flip flops. Arriving back in the states , he was touched by his experiences in Phitsanulok and decided to not only import the flops,  but to  give a portion of his proceeds back to the town  and another portion to Thai entrepreneurs through Ashoka. We caught up with him to discuss his big plans for the future. Trust us, there's lots to come.

In the meantime, we took a look back at how we played a small role in his success by supporting his road trip to visit Whole Foods across the Southwest this summer. Besides just turning him into a Twitter addict, of course. Read our Case Study for details on our efforts.

]]>2009-08-26 DIY Listening toolsSomewhere there is a potential customer talking about you or your industry. Therefore, listening is a key component in online marketing. We use a tool that helps aggregate conversations across various online platforms and allows us to use negative keywords and narrow our criteria. It helps to determine positive or negative sentiment and gives insight into customer perceptions. While it is great at constantly combing the vast reaches of the internet,  I have never found one tool that suits all of my needs or monitors every conversation. Even after testing out pricy industry-respected tools, I would always find missed opportunities through SocialMention and GoogleAlerts.

So, I wonder if we really need fancy tools. They create good-looking reports and sound impressive in client meetings, but at the end of the day I always look back to Lisa Baronne's post about using free tools to monitor mentions online. Her approach is simple and exhaustive. I like looking over my own search queries, making connections and gleaning insights based on my own opinions.

I'm not going to give up entirely on finding a better listening tool.  I appreciate anything I find that offers a  more cost effective and efficient way of doing things.  But, I also think long and hard before investing in products that pass along costs to our clients.

Do you know of a better option? We have a tools section on our site where we will share some of our time-tested favorites. And we hope you will share your favorites, too!



]]>2009-08-20