For more info on how to use video in your marketing, please check out our next workshop on February 23rd. For more details, visit Columbus Internet Marketing Association website

Click here to Register for this FREE event: Event Registration

6:30-8:30PM, Tuesday January 26th at Hondros College in Westerville, Ohio:

There’s an old saying out there that in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. In the internet marketing world, most people would say that the one-eyed king is traffic. Traffic in the sense that it’s important to find more ways to get more people looking at your websites. Eyeballs, website visitors, etc.

Don’t get us wrong, getting people to visit your website is important, but it is NOT necessarily the key to online success?

That’s right… Traffic is NOT the only key to having small business success on the internet. You have to have the RIGHT kind of traffic. Traffic that is full of “buyers”. Not tire kickers. But qualified buyers that have already mentally made up their minds to pull the trigger and actively seek out your company’s products and services. Buyers that are ready to reach into their pockets pull out their credit cards and start doing business with you.

If these are the types of buyers you are looking to magnetically attract to your small business then you are not going to want to miss this month’s very important workshop.

This month listen in listen in as Columbus IMA Executive Director, Dave Zehala, discusses:

“The Riches are in the Niches: How to Sniff Out the Most Profitable Opportunities for Your Small Business Online”

In this Columbus internet marketing Workshop, Dave will share with you:

Unofficial Google Cheat Sheet

Over a 6 month period, the researchers found that the top Twitter  users have experienced a 500 percent growth in their follower base versus Facebook fans who have grown by approximately 200 percent.

The biggest difference between the numbers is that Twitter’s top users have almost as many followers as Facebook’s top pages.  Previously, Facebook was almost 5 times as large as Twitter in this category.

Additionally, in the previous 6 month period a large percentage of the top Facebook users didn’t even have  Twitter accounts.   This time around, 60 percent of the Facebook users now have Twitter accounts.

Columbus advertising pros take notice!  The bottomline is this:

Twitter is exploding and busting out of the seams.  And as more of these “Top Users” continue to adopt these kinds of social media tools, it won’t be long until this media is now considered the “norm” and will quickly play a huge role in the small business owners marketing mix.

Stay tuned.  A lot more to follow.

Top Facebook Users

Top Twitter Users

This combo allows small business owners like us to save a ton of money on long distance calls by simply using our computer as if it were a telephone. For Free.

Cool stuff, plus it has completely allowed me to get rid of 2 separate business phone lines. That saves us at least a few hundred dollars a year if not more.

Recent news suggests that Google has some pretty big plans in this area and is in the process of developing their own Google Voice telephony service into a Skype-rivalling VoIP operation in 2010.

If you recall from the workshop, setting up this free service was a little tricky but once you worked aound the Gizmo / Google quirks it worked like a champ. It now looks like with Google acquiring Gizmo they will clean this up in 2010 and roll it out for everyone’s use. Most likely for free.

According to Martin Bryant with the Next Web Blog:

“At present, Google Voice offers a single phone number to replace your existing landline, mobile phone and any other lines you have. With voicemail transcription, threaded SMS, easy conference calling and a web-based admin panel it’s hugely popular with its invite-only US users.

When Google acquired VOIP start-up Gizmo5 last month it looked likely that the company’s talent would be used to improve Google Voice.

Now, in an interview with EWeek, Google’s Vice President of Product Management Bradley Horowitz has made clear that the Gizmo5 acquisition will lead to a much-improved version of Google Voice in 2010.

“Voicemail transcription, inbox integration and threaded SMS are fantastic features, but we’re really just scratching the surface. Gizmo5 gives us talent and talent technology. They have specific tech and skills in further integrating telephony with devices and desktop and Web-based computing.

We want to make sure you’re communication is available to you irrespective of where you are at, what device you have in your pocket, etc.”

While Horowitz didn’t discuss specifics, it’s clear that there are big plans afoot for Google Voice, and they rely on Gizmo5’s VoIP experience. We could well be looking at a version of the service that runs entirely via VoIP, without the need for a landline. As with Skype, this service could dial into and out of traditional telephone lines but without the requirement to be fixed to a particular number.

Some may say that this takes something away from the essence of the service – replacing all your existing numbers with one Google Voice number is part of its appeal, but with call forwarding set up properly on your existing lines it could be almost as good.

Of course, this is all just speculation at the moment. It’s clear, though, that we’ll hear a lot about Google Voice next year. Skype’s product development has stagnated in recent times. 2010 could be the year it finally sees some solid competition.”

This list goes on and on and at some point you will need to use an internet marketing tool called a URL shortener to accomplish this purpose.

To help you figure this out I am posting a great chart put together by Danny Sullivan from SearchEngineLand. The URL service I like the best on this list is BudURL because it offers a FREE, live tracking feature. I also like and have used tinyurl.

I am considering switching over to bit.ly because I am hearing some rumors that some of the Internet Service Providers and web hosting companies have banned BudURL on certain networks (if you have some info on this please comment on this blog). Apparently some of the internet marketing gurus abused the BUDurl service. Bit.ly is also the preferred url shortner service for social media services like Twitter, etc.

Anyway, the chart below should save you a ton of time and effort as you evaluate which free service to use. Enjoy.

]]> http://columbusinternetandwebmarketingblog.com/quick-look-at-url-shortners/feed/ 0 http://columbusinternetandwebmarketingblog.com/quick-look-at-url-shortners/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ColumbusInternetMarketingAssociationBlog-DaveZehala/~3/Jem9FriD82U/ http://columbusinternetandwebmarketingblog.com/columbus-internet-marketing-association-december-meeting-info/#comments Tue, 15 Dec 2009 14:18:27 +0000 columbus internet http://columbusinternetandwebmarketingblog.com/?p=57

Click Here to Register = Meeting Registration

Marketing = Storytelling

I was doing some end of year housecleaning last week on my computer, and I came across some old notes regarding the importance of using stories in both your offline and online marketing campaigns.

Very important stuff so I thought I would share it with you.

Studies have shown that using well thought out stories in your marketing campiagns will not only increase sales conversions but will also have big impacts on customer retention.   Psychologically, I think we were all trained at an early age to tune in when mom/dad/teacher read a story.  It kind of let’s your own imagination take over.

Check out the list below.  When I’m putting together a talk or online video, etc., my general rule of thumb is to add a minimum of at  least 3 “stories” per 90 minutes of content.  Works for me.  Enjoy.

• Personal Discovery Stories – tell how you discovered a lesson. These stories show your readers how similar you are to them.
• Stories as Analogies and Illustrations – tell a story that on the surface has nothing to do with your topic but which illustrates a principle that is very relevant
• Success Stories – tell how you achieved something. These stories can be inspirational and motivating for your readers.
• Failure Stories – I find that these stories are incredibly powerful – particularly if you are able to show some lessons learned through a failure
• Tell Someone Else’s Story – sharing the journey of someone else and how/what they learned can be effective
• How I did it Stories – these practical stories can be effective because they talk your readers through a process in a relatable way
• Biographies – pick a key person in your niche and tell your readers that person’s story – pulling out useful parts that can be applied and used to enhance your readers lives.
• Picture Stories – using images or video can be another great way of communicating a story because it engages the senses in a way that text can’t (similarly – audio posts/podcasts can do this too).
• Case Studies – quite often pulling apart someone else’s experience in a case study can be a powerful way to connect with readers.
• Fiction – if well written a made up and imaginative story can be a good way to lead into a post. You’ll probably want to come clean about the fact that it’s not true though
• Reader Stories – ask your readers to tell you their stories/experiences on a topic. You might kick things off with a short one of your own but then quickly hand it over to others to share.
• Imagine If Stories – another type of story that I’ve seen used well on occasion is one where you get your reader to imagine a hypothetical scenario that they are in. Here’s an example of this where I told a story in the 2nd person (with YOU the reader as the main character). These posts can be particularly useful for getting readers to FEEL something or to help them to understand that the problem that you’re writing about is one that is personal for them.