With the announcement today that online media giant AOL will buy the Huffington Post for $315 million from entrepreneur and founder Arianna Huffington, online business owners everywhere should take note. Though Huffington certainly may have had more resources than most start-up entrepreneurs when she launched her venture six years ago, she used the same basic online marketing techniques available to all online entrepreneurs while building her business. What tools are available to grow your business in the online world?
News
HuffPo sale shows online businesses viable. Whatever else the success of the Huffington Post demonstrates, it shows the value of online marketing in powering phenomenal growth. Today, small business owners must take heed of this fact whether their business is an online product, service or site or whether they simply use a product service or site to market it. Slate.com
“Paid” vs. “organic” traffic and which is better for you. Blog entrepreneur Ana Hoffman spends her weekend Webcast discussing the differences in traffic, but admits there’s only one kind she’s really interested in. Hear more from this podcast of the show. Traffic Generation Cafe
Trends
How “user experience” equals branding in online businesses. Another way that virtual or online businesses (or just digital products in general) differ from more traditional products is in areas described with phrases like “user experience” or “user flow and virality.” This is the case even if your Website is the marketing tool for another product. If your Website doesn’t work, don’t expect sales or new clients. Fast Company
Online marketing means going viral. Gail Gardner talks about a major consideration in the world of digital marketing: owning or controlling your content versus sharing freely and letting your message spread. It’s clear which practice Gail prefers. GrowMap
Social Media
Blending social and location-based marketing online. Samuel Axon looks at how some brands are harnessing the combined social networking and check-in features of Facebook places to push brand awareness to the next level. Are you looking at incorporating all of the social media tools at your disposal to market your business. Sprout Social Insights
How to win Facebook friends and influence people. Tom Parnell’s post couldalmost be an update of the classic Dale Carnegie book adapted for the age of the Internet (and specifically Facebook. Tom suggests techniques and asks for suggestions on the way to becoming a social media influencer. What’s your tip? Kikolani.com
Twitterology
Are you being a good Twitter citizen? We’re not mentioning any names, but somebody around here *cough* (Big Cajun Man ) has come up with a list of things he thinks are rude for you to do on Twitter. We’re also pretty sure we’ve done one or two of them ourselves from time to time, so let’s review. Working Hard On The Internet
Getting the lingo down. Ever tried to communicate with another human being using only words incorporating 140 characters at a time? Thank heavens, then, that Twitter involves typing out your thoughts. And also, thank heavens for this comprehensive guide to the best in Twitter shortcuts. Sian Phillips
It’s all about the numbers? Here’s a completely different Twitter strategy than what you may have heard before. Also, in direct contradiction to a post above “tweet in blocks.” We’d like to hear your strategy for Tweeting. Go ahead and leave it below. Traffic Generation Cafe
Online Marketing
Learning the backlink basics. Aside from all the social media marketing, much online marketing comes down to simple research and implementation. Here a back link strategist gives us a look inside the impact back links or inbounds links (one of the most important factors in search results) will ultimately effect any sites marketing campaign. Have a look. DannyWhitehouse.com
From Small Business TrendsSmall Business News: Marketing Your Online Business Like Arianna Huffington
Cloris Leachman appears in an ad for domain registrar Network Solutions; the ad promotes a service offered by the registrar which competes with GoDaddy.com. Most Super Bowl fans will recognize GoDaddy’s ads with little prompting; they generally feature a young and prominently endowed woman dressed scantily while breathlessly promoting GoDaddy’s brand. GoDaddy has also featured ads with Indy Series/NASCAR driver Danica Patrick, but the ads still revolve around a young woman. In at least one recent case, a GoDaddy ad featuring Patrick was rejected because of its reference to beavers; one might well ask what beavers have to do with domain registrations.
The Network Solutions’ Leachman ad represents anti-marketing, which Geoff Livingston wrote about yesterday, discussing a trend in “unselling” products. The Volkswagen ad with the tiny Darth Vader wannabe (see at bottom of this post) could also be seen as an anti-marketing ad; there’s little effort made to push the product, only a subtle appeal through the ubiquity of the subject across a range of potential buyers, made in a way which cuts through all the other advertising — targeted buyers of the Volkswagen in the ad are familiar with Star Wars and are likely of child-rearing age, and can readily relate to the ad. This isn’t a new approach; it’s been more common among European companies to use an indirect approach to selling. New, though, is the uptick in this kind of marketing, intended to break through the deluge of promotions pushed through regular broadcast and cable outlets, and now social media.
What’s particularly important about the Leachman ad is not unselling or anti-marketing, but the pointed pushback at advertising which uses young women as objects to promote a product while doing little to convey anything about the product’s merits. One might well wonder what it is that GoDaddy offers customers after watching one of their well-endowed ads — what does GoDaddy have to do at all with the internet?
The advocate at the end of the YouTube ad above is a critical point of departure as well; BlogHer.com’s CEO Lisa Stone dispels the notion that women are only window dressing for a technology product. Women are purchasers of domain services, and are among those customers that want to “get serious” as the ad’s tagline says are those who want trustworthy and effective technology products and services, not breast-enhanced glitz.
Women have been given short-shrift in technology for a very long time, even though they have become a driving force in technology consumption. The disparity in how women are treated by the technology has been the focus of several organizations, among them the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology, and Women Who Tech, an organization which hosts an annual summit focusing on parity in the technology industry. The work of these organizations may finally have paid off — 15 years after the Borg Institute launched — if a member of the technology industry is finally willing to stake a sizable chunk of marketing cash to go after the market segment which doesn’t want or need sexist messaging to promote products and services.
But perhaps the raw numbers convinced Network Solutions to do the Leachman ad:
bench craft company credit cardScientists, telescope hunt massive hidden object in space – This <b>...</b>
You know how you sometimes can sense that something is present even though you can't see it? Well, astronomers are getting that feeling about a giant, hidden object in space. And when we say giant, we mean GIANT.
Live blogging Obama's <b>news</b> conference – CNN Political Ticker - CNN <b>...</b>
The CNN Political and White House teams are bringing you the latest developments and reactions from President Obama's news conference. Please continually refresh this page for the latest updates (CTRL-R). UPDATE: Read the full CNN.com ...
Iowa GOP, Fox <b>News</b> set presidential debate for week before Iowa <b>...</b>
The Republican Party of Iowa and Fox News Channel announced details Tuesday for a presidential debate scheduled for the week before the Iowa Caucuses. While no specific date is given, the caucuses are scheduled for Feb. 6, 2012. ...
bench craft company credit cardScientists, telescope hunt massive hidden object in space – This <b>...</b>
You know how you sometimes can sense that something is present even though you can't see it? Well, astronomers are getting that feeling about a giant, hidden object in space. And when we say giant, we mean GIANT.
Live blogging Obama's <b>news</b> conference – CNN Political Ticker - CNN <b>...</b>
The CNN Political and White House teams are bringing you the latest developments and reactions from President Obama's news conference. Please continually refresh this page for the latest updates (CTRL-R). UPDATE: Read the full CNN.com ...
Iowa GOP, Fox <b>News</b> set presidential debate for week before Iowa <b>...</b>
The Republican Party of Iowa and Fox News Channel announced details Tuesday for a presidential debate scheduled for the week before the Iowa Caucuses. While no specific date is given, the caucuses are scheduled for Feb. 6, 2012. ...
bench craft company reviewsScientists, telescope hunt massive hidden object in space – This <b>...</b>
You know how you sometimes can sense that something is present even though you can't see it? Well, astronomers are getting that feeling about a giant, hidden object in space. And when we say giant, we mean GIANT.
Live blogging Obama's <b>news</b> conference – CNN Political Ticker - CNN <b>...</b>
The CNN Political and White House teams are bringing you the latest developments and reactions from President Obama's news conference. Please continually refresh this page for the latest updates (CTRL-R). UPDATE: Read the full CNN.com ...
Iowa GOP, Fox <b>News</b> set presidential debate for week before Iowa <b>...</b>
The Republican Party of Iowa and Fox News Channel announced details Tuesday for a presidential debate scheduled for the week before the Iowa Caucuses. While no specific date is given, the caucuses are scheduled for Feb. 6, 2012. ...
bench craft company meScientists, telescope hunt massive hidden object in space – This <b>...</b>
You know how you sometimes can sense that something is present even though you can't see it? Well, astronomers are getting that feeling about a giant, hidden object in space. And when we say giant, we mean GIANT.
Live blogging Obama's <b>news</b> conference – CNN Political Ticker - CNN <b>...</b>
The CNN Political and White House teams are bringing you the latest developments and reactions from President Obama's news conference. Please continually refresh this page for the latest updates (CTRL-R). UPDATE: Read the full CNN.com ...
Iowa GOP, Fox <b>News</b> set presidential debate for week before Iowa <b>...</b>
The Republican Party of Iowa and Fox News Channel announced details Tuesday for a presidential debate scheduled for the week before the Iowa Caucuses. While no specific date is given, the caucuses are scheduled for Feb. 6, 2012. ...
bench craft company reviewsScientists, telescope hunt massive hidden object in space – This <b>...</b>
You know how you sometimes can sense that something is present even though you can't see it? Well, astronomers are getting that feeling about a giant, hidden object in space. And when we say giant, we mean GIANT.
Live blogging Obama's <b>news</b> conference – CNN Political Ticker - CNN <b>...</b>
The CNN Political and White House teams are bringing you the latest developments and reactions from President Obama's news conference. Please continually refresh this page for the latest updates (CTRL-R). UPDATE: Read the full CNN.com ...
Iowa GOP, Fox <b>News</b> set presidential debate for week before Iowa <b>...</b>
The Republican Party of Iowa and Fox News Channel announced details Tuesday for a presidential debate scheduled for the week before the Iowa Caucuses. While no specific date is given, the caucuses are scheduled for Feb. 6, 2012. ...
bench craft company reviewsScientists, telescope hunt massive hidden object in space – This <b>...</b>
You know how you sometimes can sense that something is present even though you can't see it? Well, astronomers are getting that feeling about a giant, hidden object in space. And when we say giant, we mean GIANT.
Live blogging Obama's <b>news</b> conference – CNN Political Ticker - CNN <b>...</b>
The CNN Political and White House teams are bringing you the latest developments and reactions from President Obama's news conference. Please continually refresh this page for the latest updates (CTRL-R). UPDATE: Read the full CNN.com ...
Iowa GOP, Fox <b>News</b> set presidential debate for week before Iowa <b>...</b>
The Republican Party of Iowa and Fox News Channel announced details Tuesday for a presidential debate scheduled for the week before the Iowa Caucuses. While no specific date is given, the caucuses are scheduled for Feb. 6, 2012. ...
bench craft company credit cardScientists, telescope hunt massive hidden object in space – This <b>...</b>
You know how you sometimes can sense that something is present even though you can't see it? Well, astronomers are getting that feeling about a giant, hidden object in space. And when we say giant, we mean GIANT.
Live blogging Obama's <b>news</b> conference – CNN Political Ticker - CNN <b>...</b>
The CNN Political and White House teams are bringing you the latest developments and reactions from President Obama's news conference. Please continually refresh this page for the latest updates (CTRL-R). UPDATE: Read the full CNN.com ...
Iowa GOP, Fox <b>News</b> set presidential debate for week before Iowa <b>...</b>
The Republican Party of Iowa and Fox News Channel announced details Tuesday for a presidential debate scheduled for the week before the Iowa Caucuses. While no specific date is given, the caucuses are scheduled for Feb. 6, 2012. ...
bench craft company meScientists, telescope hunt massive hidden object in space – This <b>...</b>
You know how you sometimes can sense that something is present even though you can't see it? Well, astronomers are getting that feeling about a giant, hidden object in space. And when we say giant, we mean GIANT.
Live blogging Obama's <b>news</b> conference – CNN Political Ticker - CNN <b>...</b>
The CNN Political and White House teams are bringing you the latest developments and reactions from President Obama's news conference. Please continually refresh this page for the latest updates (CTRL-R). UPDATE: Read the full CNN.com ...
Iowa GOP, Fox <b>News</b> set presidential debate for week before Iowa <b>...</b>
The Republican Party of Iowa and Fox News Channel announced details Tuesday for a presidential debate scheduled for the week before the Iowa Caucuses. While no specific date is given, the caucuses are scheduled for Feb. 6, 2012. ...
bench craft company credit cardScientists, telescope hunt massive hidden object in space – This <b>...</b>
You know how you sometimes can sense that something is present even though you can't see it? Well, astronomers are getting that feeling about a giant, hidden object in space. And when we say giant, we mean GIANT.
Live blogging Obama's <b>news</b> conference – CNN Political Ticker - CNN <b>...</b>
The CNN Political and White House teams are bringing you the latest developments and reactions from President Obama's news conference. Please continually refresh this page for the latest updates (CTRL-R). UPDATE: Read the full CNN.com ...
Iowa GOP, Fox <b>News</b> set presidential debate for week before Iowa <b>...</b>
The Republican Party of Iowa and Fox News Channel announced details Tuesday for a presidential debate scheduled for the week before the Iowa Caucuses. While no specific date is given, the caucuses are scheduled for Feb. 6, 2012. ...
No comments:
Post a Comment