ScentTrail Marketing

Video Marketing Secrets With David Rose At #ABTmeetup

2012-01-24T21:15:00.001-05:00

Video Marketing Best Practices At Raleigh Internet Marketing Meetup
Our monthly Internet Marketing Relativity group is growing. About 20 people stopped by Atlantic BT in Raleigh tonight to learn video marketing best practices from David Rose of MagneTVideo.com. Rick, Anthony, Patrick and everyone at Bella Mia Coal Fired Pizza in Cary made sure we ate great food as David shared these online video marketing secrets:

Video SEO

Transcripts are key to video SEO
Use closed caption transcriptions to feed search engine spiders
YouTube helps achieve great SEO placement but hard to convert from YouTube so think of your YouTube videos more like positive branding
Never, under any circumstance, drive traffic to YouTube since your traffic will do many things (watching funny cat videos or the latest viral craze), but conversion isn't one of them
Video Title = key for SEO, followed by tags and a complete transcription

Video As Core

Video, like anything else, ins NOT a silver bullet put part of an overall content and marketing strategy
Video's singular purpose is to promote conversion, anything else is getting off track (and not in a good way)
Measure customer engagement - how long do customers watch the video and shoot for 90% or above getting all the way through
One minute or about 145 words is the new online video limit, after that viewership drops off dramatically
Talking heads can kill viewership, so use B Roll and motion to keep interest throughout the minute or less video
Talking heads are also hard to pull off since even experienced CEO's can shut down in front of a camera
Videos enhance landing pages helping focus attention into Call To Action because "heavy lifting" is done by the video (not hundreds of words of text on the page)

Video ROI and Metrics

Great questions about how to define video success in a multi-touch world and here is what we came up with...

Sophisticated systems can allocate time on site, view and conversion via cookies and carries
Use of multi-touch assignments (of touch value) is cheaper and faster if all parties can agree to value of each touch (what is video's value after SEO, email marketing and social? Who knows but make an assignment and move on)
Modeled worlds like Internet marketing aren't 2 + 2 = 4 linear worlds, this is not to say video marketing is a "trust me" as I shared specific A/B tests conducted on product pages before and after video from last job.
There is a HUGE opportunity for video metrics, David blogs video metrics monthly read his Online Video Statistics For December 2011

Great Internet Marketing Meetup tonight! Thanks to David, MagneTVideo.com and everyone who came, ate great pizza and asked fantastic questions. If you live in Raleigh, Durham, Cary or Chapel Hill and are interested in attending our next Raleigh Internet Marketing Meetup use the link below to join our group and look for an email about our February meetup soon.

Yes, I Want To Join Internet Marketing Relativity MEETUP at Atlantic BT in Raleigh.

Thanks, Martin

Twitter Hashtag: #abtmeetup

Content Curation Magic And Contest

2011-12-10T13:20:00.001-05:00

Not sure where I was when the realization hit me like a ton of bricks. We couldn't create all the content we needed. My team thought someone just shot my dog. "There is no way the four of us can keep up," I stated. Met by curious glances I continued, "the demand for great content is moving faster and faster well beyond our ability to keep up." I was having this conversation on gut instincts since it was well before I did research on Amazon's content dominance (almost a billion pages in Google). I didn't yet know how completely platforms beat web sites.

I challenged my team to help get me out of my funk. What was the answer? We came up with several ideas that day several years ago including:

Create a multi-author blog.
Develop contests and games to generate User Generated Content (UGC)
Curate content from authoritative sources in a non-proprietary way
Hang on for dear life

What Is Content Curation or Web Content Curation
Content curation is strange alchemy. At first and from the outside arranging content created by others into a coherent stream may seem simple and close to stealing. Such perspective denies the creativity and vision needed to filter, organize and present. Curators at MoMA or The Metropolitan take years to organize, filter, arrange and write scholarship behind one show. Attending the Jackson Pollack retrospective in 1999 I consumed several years of work in an afternoon.

Web content curation is different than museum curation. The web exists in a constant NOW. Taking a year to assemble content would mean any final product would be hopeless out of touch. Web content curation happens NOW. This doesn't mean there aren't "evergreen" ideas involved, ideas that stretch across even Internet time.

Ideas such as social media marketing, Facebook, video and email marketing are big ideas that change within a predictable range (say plus or minus 10%). Change tends to come in storms or "bursts". Linked author Albert-Laszlo Barabasi explains, in his follow up book to Linked. Barabasi sees ife and marketing are a series of bursts. Twitter comes out with a new look, Google changes their algorithm and Facebook adds Brand Pages simultaneously creating a burst of change. Bursts are why the most common graph I've seen in 15 years of Internet marketing is a wavy sine wave (and I see it over and over).

Web content curators smooth out the web's natural "burst-iness" by curating content into "ever-green" buckets and themes. I created Curation Revolution on Scoop.it because curation seemed a new evergreen idea. Evergreen ideas create bridges from the web's constant now to tomorrow, next week and next year. Web content curators create bridges between NOW and THEN, between the web's content infinity and our very finite minds.

Web Content Curation's Magical New Tools
There are rare moments when we all arrive simultaneously at the same conclusion. Moore's Law, that integrated circuits become more powerful even as their cost decline, means we are and will be drowning in content. About a year after my "we can't create enough content" team meeting I wrote Curation The Next Web Revolution (on ScentTrail and Technorati) to explosive response.

Reading my posts Scoop.it founders Guillaume Decugis and Marc Rougier emailed sharing keys to their brand new Ferrari. Granted access to Scoop.it's beta I fell in love creating my first Scoop.it feed - Curation Revolution. I couldn't use Scoop.it much during beta so I loved from afar. Over the last few weeks I've thrown myself headlong with love, passion and admiration easily doubling. Scoop.it is magical (read Why Scoop.it Rocks).

Scoop.it isn't the only magical mashup tool. Hunch.com (Why Hunch Rocks) is one of the fastest ways to learn I've found and its UI is a thing of MoMA-worthy beauty. Pnterest, Gimme Bar, and Pearltrees will change web curation further.

Content Curation Contest...coming soon
I'm working on a Content Curation Contest to identify and reward great content curators such as Robin Good, Anise Smith and Michele Smorgon (maxOz). If you are a great content curator and would like details about the contest, please follow @ScentTrail and use #curationcontest in a Tweet (or two or three). If you know content curators such as Karen Dietz, Alex Butler and Morten Myrstad please let them know about our contest.

Pre-Contest Tweets & Email
Use #CurationContest in a Tweet to be on the contest mailing list. Curation Contest will start before Christmas. Or email Martin.Smith(at)AtlanticBT(dot)com with "Curation Contest" in subject.

Will be running the Content Curation Contest on our company's site Atlantic BT, so be sure to follow @Atlanticbt too.

Thanks and stay tuned. Martin

Internet Marketing Interns At Atlantic Business Technology in Raleigh

2011-11-29T23:40:00.001-05:00

How, we were wondering, could we give back?

How can someone learn how to become an Internet Marketer?

Internet Marketing moves so fast it can't be taught in a college classroom, dorm rooms maybe :). Atlantic Business Technologies in Raleigh located in the Atlantic BT Center, 4509 Creedmoor, wants to help students or people who want to transition into Internet Marketing learn by doing.

2 (unpaid) Internet Marketing Internships to be filled immediately:

Social Media Marketing Intern
The Atlantic BT Social Media Marketing Intern is about understanding the rapidly evolving world of social media marketing and its cousin SEO (search engine optimization). Responsible for developing content strategy for the Atlantic BT blog, Facebook, Twitter and Mobile platforms. The Social Marketing Intern will evaluate new social media tools such as Scoop.it, Share.it, Hunch.com and Quora making recommendations for partnerships and working new tools into Atlantic BT's social media marketing mix. Assist in the creation of marketing personas and archetypes to guide campaign creation, offers, site heuristics and taxonomy. Social Media Marketing Intern will also work with metrics to create social ROI reports and understand reporting tools such as Argyle Social, Spring Metrics and Google Analytics.

Requirements: Strong writing, analysis and creativity skills. Knowledge of Photoshop and Dreamweaver a plus. Some knowledge or experience with analytics a definite plus.

Internet Marketing Campaign Coordinator Intern
The Atlantic BT Campaign Coordinator Internship is about bridging the gap between the art and science of Internet marketing. Starting with brainstorming, planning and then working with creative to produce Internet marketing campaigns, the Internet Marketing Campaign Coordinator will be knee deep in understanding client needs, translating needs into marketing campaigns, testing assumptions and reporting results. The Internet Marketing Campaign Coordinator Intern helps organize, champion and test macro and micro Internet marketing concepts around topics such as gameificaiton, social capital and email marketing.

Requirements: Knowledge of Photoshop and Dreamweaver required. Ability to think creativity. Some knowledge or experience with analytics a definite plus. Strong keyword writing skills a definite plus.

Interested in learning Internet marketing from Raleigh largest web development and Internet marketing shop? Here is how to apply:

Email:
Send Resume and short essay (300 words or less) on why you should be one of the two Atlantic BT Internet Marketing Interns to...

Martin.Smith(at)AtlanticBT(dot)com

Twitter @Atlanticbt :
Tweet links to your online resume and blog with short essay on why you should be one of Atlantic BT's Internet Marketing Interns using #ABTintern .

Wednesday Night Interviews
If you can turn around an application by attending our Raleigh Internet Marketing Meetup on Wednesday November 30th at 6:30 we will be interviewing from 4:30 to 6:30. Tweet the time you would like to interview to @atlanticbt using #ABTintern.

Video Tsunami - Video Is Awesome

2011-11-27T17:31:00.001-05:00

Video Internet marketing tsunami is coming (may already be here):

Thanks to my Scoop.it friend Shelly Kramer (@ShellyKramer) for sharing this awesome video about video marketing :). Be sure to check out Curation Revolution and Startup Heroes on Scoop.it.

.

Video Infographic Example

2011-11-25T21:03:00.001-05:00

Infographics can't get hotter and rightfully so, they are cool and it is easier to understand massive amounts of data. Today I saw an example of a "video infographic" that took the idea to its next logical extension. I saw this example working on my Curation Revolution Scoop.it feed.

Here it is the video infographic:

Glencore from Patrick Clair on Vimeo.

A Thanksgiving Story

2011-11-24T14:45:00.001-05:00

Martin's Thanksgiving Story
I was in a hurry doing something I would need to do intensely for the next sixty days. I was riding my bicycle. Actually I was almost done with the only ride I could make on the day before riding a bicycle across America.

My short twenty-mile ride down a trail created from wagons carrying tobacco to Washington Duke’s curing barns was almost over. I did what I’d done almost each day for three months: pulled on my six panel riding shorts, my Ben and Jerry’s jersey, gloves, shoes with clips to connect directly to my Specialized Roubaix, a helmet and glasses to ride across the face of Southpoint Mall over to the tobacco trail’s head and then down to the Goodman family’s better than original restoration of the Lucky Strike tower and many of the Duke family’s American Tobacco buildings. Buildings where friends are creating the next generation of cool companies, startups founded on hope, genius and hard work.

Like always I’d sat for a few restive moments between ride down and ride home. I’d listened to the Goodman’s babbling brook in a vain attempt to quiet my over stimulated mind. I wasn’t sure about the adventure I’d conceived in my twenties. Riding a bicycle across America sounded fun in theory. Would it prove so in practice? The logistics of a dream made real were becoming slightly oppressive too. Route planning, hotel reservations (with the able guiding hand of AAA) and the hopes and dreams of a growing circle of family, friends and well wishers created pressure now located in a headache and swirling thoughts.

I was a day a way from being asked, “What do you think about all that time, all that time you spend riding a bicycle so far?” The correct answer is riding a bicycle reminding me of the Zen parable:

An eager student turns to a much older Zen master after a delicious and filling meal. “What,” the student asks leaning forward to hear every word from his master, “is Zen?” The master’s gaze was out toward the hill and setting sun. After several deep, long breaths the master said to the student, now almost jumping out of his skin with anticipation, “wash the dishes.”

Turning my bicycle’s crank on the way home I wasn’t focused, calm or sure of anything. Dreams can be dangerous things. Dreams made real by force of will can harm yourself and others. Harm wasn’t the intent. The intent was opposite. My intent was to share profound thanks; thanks created from seeing but not experiencing my own passing. Cancer is nothing if not a loud alarm, the most surprising wake up call I hope you (whoever is reading this) never experience. I will go further and hope no one you love ever has to hear cancer and their name in the same sentence much less have the “death panel” discussion about treatment options or weigh life as you know it and love balanced against what life can become when challenged by a force larger than your will.

This day, the day before leaving on Martin's Ride To Cure Cancer, seemed hectic and at odds. Sitting listening to calculated water rushing past slowed thinking down enough to climb back on my bicycle and ride home. A rush of excitement and calculations (of all the things needing to be done before leaving for the Morris Cancer Clinic at Duke the next day) prompted something I’d never considered.

Looking to my right and then quickly left at the intersection of route 54 and Fayetteville Road, not seeing any cars I clipped in, turned my crank several time to jump the light. Suddenly there was a car coming up over the small rise on my left trying to make the yellow. I didn’t have any momentum. I couldn’t make it. I clipped out and stood still waiting for impact.

Hard to explain why I stood so stock-still. My life was in someone else’s hands again. I could see the driver’s worried look as brakes sounded, tires lost rubber to the road and smoke rose from the car's front and real wheel wells. I tried to psychically send a "my bad" in an attempt to ease the stress I could see on the driver's face coming closer and closer, faster and faster.

Everyone stopped still. The light turned, but no one moved. No one even honked hanging and waiting for the inevitable. Then the car’s momentum stopped two feet from my left knee. I looked at the driver, a young man hanging on to his wheel as if his life (not mine) depended on it. He didn’t yell or do anything. He just looked relieved. I climbed back into my clips and moved toward a new destiny, toward realizing a lifelong dream.

Since some magic hand decided I could form a team and ride a bicycle across America I would. My mind was calm and determined now. Logistics are important but they wouldn’t interfere with aesthetics again. Every moment from then on was a gift, a special gift of time, spirit and love.

I would need to use some moments soon to climb oxygen-depleting mountains, others to design web sites and some to hug and thank trusted family and friends. My group of friends grew with each pedal turn. When I wanted to quit and go to bed my team reminded me of an important idea – that Martin’s Ride wasn’t about Martin anymore.

Martin’s Ride was about curing cancer, working together and loving the moment we are always in. This moment now as I remember and write I’m thankful for all of those moments and ones ahead. My thanksgiving is large and inclusive. I’m thankful for friends, family, doctors, researchers, coworkers, artists and writers. I’m thankful for this breath and the next. I’m thankful a bad decision, jumping a light the day before a 3,000-mile journey, only cost a few seconds of fear paid in full with a year of grace and thanks.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Phil Buckley – In Praise of 1918's SEO

2011-11-17T18:21:00.001-05:00

I knew and could just about hum the tune. Watching my friend Phil Buckley speak to a large meeting room packed with Internet marketers on the Social Media Intensive Track at Tuesday morning’s Raleigh Internet Summit (Summit Intensive notes and Internet Summit Keynote Panel notes) I thought of how far we’ve both come from conference rooms and white boards of the past. I left Phil not long after making one of my most intelligent hiring decisions to ride a bicycle across America (Martin's Ride To Cure Cancer).

Phil held fort as long as humanly possible and well past the “sell by” date to land at CapStrat, one of if not the best communication companies / agencies around. Phil’s “Director of Interactive” role is testimony to good guys can finish something other than last.

Phil combines quicksilver intelligence and Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hours necessary to get really good at something (Outliers) to understand search engine optimization better than almost anyone I know (and I know some serious quants). Generally I agree with Gladwell, but 10,000 Internet marketing hours guarantees nothing. The web constantly tears itself down, creates something new and tears that down faster and faster.

Ten thousand hours in a classroom, as Atlantic BT noted in their Experience vs Internet Marketing Degree – Which is better? post, doesn't work for an "Internet marketing degree". I’ve been working on web sites and Internet marketing since 1999, have started and painfully closed four companies, and worked with thousands of talented marketers. Phil is easily on Martin’s Top 10 Internet Marketer list. Phil earned his way on to the All Martin Web Development team (that and $4.00 = coffee at Starbucks) not for what he knows, though Phil’s knowledge is considerable. Phil is on my version of the “All Madden” team for what he understands.

If you don’t work in Internet marketing it can be hard to appreciate why someone who understands is more valuable than someone who knows forming the most important litmus test for anyone trying to sell your company web development. Phil's is the SEO test paper you WANT to cheat off of insuring you pass life’s biggest test – ecommerce online. Anything online is ultimately and always about commerce and commerce is always a battle waged between those who think they know and people like Phil (and hopefully moi) who understand.

There is no “KNOWING” in Internet marketing. One day, not long after I hired Phil several years ago, I explained how Phil and I modeled our fast changing, highly competitive web world to my boss (the company’s President):

I know about 25% of what I need, have learned to model 25%, can make an informed guess about 5% and presume nothing about the remaining 45% because the rest always happens NOW and in RESPONSE to the 55% confidence we cobble together on stuff we just convinced you to do, the risks we take, the life we live.

I wasn't nearly as eloquent or alliterative as “risks we take, the life we live,” but writing grants memory and personality leeway, courage and character (poetic license). Phil’s poetryslam is Search Engine Optimization (SEO) meets Search Engine Marketing (SEM). His skill, much like his beloved Red Sox (thus the @1918 tag), is finding ways to win, ways to win with the talent at hand.

CapStrat is chock full of talent much of it naturally complimentary to Atlantic BT (where I'm Director of Marketing). If it takes a village to raise an intelligent child it takes smart, smart people across several disciplines to win online especially as the online marketing noise goes UP. Phil, unlike his beloved Red Sox this year, is and will always be a winner.

Join the best Meetup in Raleigh, Phil’s SEO Everything You Need To Know (and I say that knowing I have a long way to go before my Meetup Raleigh’s Internet Marketing Relativity is as good), take Phil to lunch and enjoy the benefits of his Mayorship at the best BBQ joint in town (Raleigh’s The Pit), follow @1918 on Twitter and read his 1918 blog.

I’m immensely proud of many of the special people I’ve had the honor, privilege and joy to work with (am working with). Fighting the Big C teaches many, many lessons. One important life lesson is appreciate and SAY don’t just take for granted and think. Watching Phil discuss Integrating Social Media Into Your Search and Mobile Marketing Plan (on Slideshare) at Raleigh’s Internet Summit was cool, fun and informative like every interaction I’ve ever had with Phil. Find a way to talk to Phil Buckley and you will understand Internet marketing better, be able to take more risks and love the life we lucky few Internet marketers live.

Thanks Phil.

Martin

Integrating social media into your search and mobile

View more presentations from philipbuckley

Raleigh Internet Summit Keynote Pannel

2011-11-15T14:26:00.001-05:00

Notes from Raleigh Internet Summit morning sessions

Raleigh Internet Summit Keynote: Future Of Digital Media and Marketing

Sitting with my friend Rich Kurnik (best network guy on planet earth and great, caring friend) and Scott from Channel II. Rich shared cool video use by MyHabit.com by Amazon (look at women's dresses). Very cool, much more engaging product presentation.

Room is about 1/3 B2B marketers, 1/3 B2C and 1/3 tech.

David Perry, Google
Ro Choy, Formspring (27M registered users, content network for teens)

Maria Pergolino, B2B Marketer for Marketo
David Payne, Chief Digital Officer Gannet

Ro Choy, Formspring
Viral marketing is complex. Must connect social and viral marketing. Create a "growth team" something Facebook did well. Email still has a role. We send out 30M emails a day at Formspring.

Content's coolness and value creates platform importance not the other way around.

The genius of Facebook is sharing. Everything you do online relating to social is being aggregated and made available to advertisers. Enormous amount of data: demographics, geographic and many other pulled in data sets create unbelievable performance when aligned. Formspring connects about 40% of our users to Facebook. Facebook is at the heart of this marketing based on rich data leading to vastly increased conversions.

Anything you share in Facebook is easy to share, harder to share in B2B. LinkedIn has an opportunity, or a competitor to LinkedIn, can fill the B2B social gap. Social for B2B isn't there yet, not at that point of acceptance but fairly short coming. Not quite as sophisticated in B2B space as B2C. Tools aren't as good, yet, either.

Social media is relevant to every choice you make everyday. This is the first layer of what is happening today. What you are going to see is the conversation changes. Discussion boards are going to become friends talking to friends. Friends talking to friends is why Facebook is so successful and find ways to integrate that friends talking to friends into product search and purchase social integration combing UGC (user generated content) and what my friends are talking about magic happens.

Big opportunity for Facebook to walk into video space, but they are there yet. YouTube is still king.

I like Comcast. They are putting a lot of content up for free. HBO is doing good too. Mobile and tablet is going to consume Internet experience in short order.

David Payne, Gannett / USA Today
We are seeing fragmentation of ecosystem of marketing and advertising. So many choices and so many different people (competitors and customers in space).

Behavior is a swipe behavior, visual metrics not PPC so interesting to see how Google will be able to respond. A vast majority of our traffic is moving into mobile. Scott from Channel 11 said the same thing before the keynote started.

People who are going to drive are those who can connect sales and new media. Who is going to win will be those who provide services that drive sales. Gannett to see the range of services instead of just one. Groupon is in trouble because they only have one. You need a suite of services.

We use social media in many ways such as news push, audience extension and we play marketer, promoter and news gatherer.

Part of what customers buy is our clean demarcation between church (editoral) and state (advertising), so marketers as content creators is scary concept. The tablet is showing us a completely different experience. Tablet is taking over where interactive TV never got traction. Tablet's touch = easy to inject different kinds of advertising (both experiential and non-linear). As behavior changes as we start swiping advertising looks and feels more like content (and vice versa). Marketing messages will be text, video, audio, anything and everything.

Video is important because of the emotional touch points. The ones who simplify, the companies who simplify video as component of local and social, will win.

My favorite disruptive force is Apple. If we could follow Apple's principles we would better serve our clients.

Maria Pergolino, Marketo
Way we watch TV is changing. Real time consumption is disruptive technology and an undeniable social trend. Disruption is happening because the way we engage with each other is changing. We must take a multi-channel approach.

Game-ification is an example of how consumption is happening.

There is an advantage to early adoption. First on to Google paid less than now. Multi-channel is key. As you get bigger you need to adjust what you are doing. Content is important.

Social is an important channel for our B2B business and clients. We use promoted Tweets and Facebook ads to be present. We identify pains people are having and create products to solve pain points. Biggest challenge is multi-touch and long term tracking. Important to think about measurement before engagement. Jump in and don't think about tracking can make tracking harder.

B2B = risks are higher so this makes social engagement differently. You could lose your job if you make the wrong CRM or CMS decision. So social is critical but longer sales cycles and multi-touch makes tracking a challenge.

When good content was harder to find it was easier to be found. Now it is about finding a way to amplify via your network to overcome the noise. Content is king doesn't ring true unless you have your own court to share that information.

David Perry, Google
From a Google perspective mobile is one of the most disruptive. About 50% in USA have smartphones and this is forcing marketers to create new ways to engage audience. Last time we did a poll 79% of Google's biggest advertisers didn't have mobile sites. That will change.

Lion's share of traffic is Google search. Mobile is up and coming. I think there is room for all of those different things (iPhone, iPad, etc...).

There are a lot of large companies: Google, Facebook, Apple that will provide value to the marketplace.

Reality is every action leaves some digital signature. Challenge is how to bring all of this data together. First, start with the business goal and work backwards toward the best metrics. How can you understand the digital path. You can do something like "big funnels" that will track all the way through conversion. ???? What is "big funnels".

Social work in B2B? I can't comment completely but customer service and other social applications seem to be getting hold.

Everyone has the opportunity to become a content creator. We are seeing an explosion in content. Challenge becomes how we make this discoverable. How do we cut through clutter. Every marketer faces this challenge.

Large companies are feeling pressure to become content creators. I'm a HUGE fan of B2B video. If you look online you see customer testimonials. SalesForce, IBM, Oracle = examples of companies using YouTube well. B2B and enterprise tech = social and YouTube and videos are a coming trend.

83% B2B executives consuming more video than a year ago. Amount of videos viewed related to enterprise tech up 2x over last year so this is a trend that will continue.

Internet Summit Raleigh

2011-11-15T07:23:00.001-05:00

NOTE: Post got long so I put Keynote Panel discussion notes on another post.

Raleigh Internet Summit Keynote Panel Notes

Blogging from the Internet Summit in Raleigh today (Tuesday November 15). Having lunch with a cool Raleigh startup and then keynote at 1:30 (so a full day of Internet marketing ahead). Will be starting with the Social Media Advanced "intensive". "Advanced" may be way too much credit since who really can be "advanced" at social media (yet). Also writing how to sell to "ME", a post about how our lives changed post Moore's Law and Google. We've changed so much how we market and sell things has to play catchup (what else is new).

Stay tuned will capture anything THAT rocks today on this post and on @ScentTrail using hashtag #isum11.

Martin

One irony struck me already. How can an Internet Summit have such a BAD website? No hero, no clear Calls To Action and a conversion mess. Site needs my employer (Atlantic Business Technologies) help (little plug there :).

Argyle Social Media
Excellent talk by Jill Carlson from Argyle Social. Here is a link to some very important Argyle slides on Social Media. Slides on balanced (promotion balanced by curation was surprise to Jill and me the first time I saw them at @1918's SEO Everything You Need To Know Meeting.

Jill's Slides from Internet Summit

Follow Argyle Social on Twitter

Jill on Twitter

Ignite Social Media
Listening to Christian from Ignite Social Media, creator of the Good Mood Gig very cool social media campaign with stunning results.

"Hardest thing I had to do was call the runner up," Christian from Ignite Social media on here work on Good Mood Gig campaign, a campaign that had to clear FDA and FTC hurdles (drug company) and the legal issues related to offering someone a job. Jim described Christian as a sweepstakes rules junkie and you would have to be to pull of a contest like this.

"Consumer is in control, we are seeing this over and over. Creativity is more important than big budgets in a social media world.
Social Media Is A Cocktail Party by Jim Tobin (@jtobin ) our capable and funny MC today.

@differentwalk (Christian Sullivan from Ignite)

Facebook prevents running a promotion native within the tool, prohibited in terms. Use of a tab is alright. Administer in Facebook is legal. expion = tool to help feed iframes and update across pages = Raleigh startup. Tabs are ways around Facebook Terms and Service.

NOTE: Need to meet with Ignite Social Media.

B2B examples of great uses of social media: Blentec and Hubspot (Hubspot going for thought leadership tracking into Sales Force)

"LinkedIn doesn't work because they won't let you do cool things. We go to them with cool things and they keep telling us we can only do ads," Jim at Internet Summit. LinkedIn forums are so filled with spam it makes it difficult to find good ones.

What about Google +
User interface is easy to use. Excited to see what outcome will be. We are starting with one of our larger clients now, Christian from Ignite Social Media.

"Google Plus is limited now. They need a tabs feature to Facebook to allow more interesting promotions and content. Potential for SEO = enormous if anyone starts to use it, but now it is throughly uninteresting" Jim Tobin, Ignite Social Media founder.

Wildfire.com = create Facebook tabs tool.

Cara Rousseu Social Media Manager at Duke Admissions

Ways consumers filtering noise is changing. Good content can build relationships.

Content should be based on stories. Tell stories, tell them again and in different formats.

Content needs to be remarkable, educational and entertaining. Really hard to be both educational and entertaining.

Using Dove evolution as example of knowing your voice. Excellent Dove Real Beauty campaign.
Example of education.

Kyle Gets Buckets 2.0 = amazing Dookies shooting baskets from strange angles all over campus.
Example of entertaining.

Kyle Gets Buckets = gem because it is a

Cascadian Farm = Great Facebook educational page offering value to become a trusted source.

30Rock = Great entertaining Facebook page.

Burt's Bees = Great Facebook custom tabs well. Go for experience but leave with an impression of Burt's Bees products that stays with you.

Aveeno = Facebook = not great because they talk to themselves about themselves.

Skittles = using social media really, really well. Social media is consistent with brand and they speak with a skittles voice. Post once a day at 4:00 and create "a little piece of candy in my day".

Threadless = example of controlling inventory and manufacturing based on crowdsourcing.

Editorial Calendar = Most Important Tool
Must think ahead and map content to those future activities. We detail what happens based on our admissions calendar. ED applicants get notified in mid-December. For those kids who were accepted we want to highlight Durham and so we will be sprinkling that theme throughout our campaigns mapping and curating content around event and content.

Also have to be nimble with social media content. Need to react TOO!. There will be changes, so you must be flexible and use tools to plan ahead.

With a tight budget brand ambassadors are key. Duke elects 7 bloggers working for "dirt cheap" blogging about Duke as Ambassadors. Identify those who love our brand and enlist them in your effort is critical when you have a low budget.

Content Management Systems - Drupal, Joomla, WordPress and Experssion Engine. Important to have multiple users creating your content. There needs to be a "Managing Editor" for consistency.

Where is your HUB?
Very important to have a hub. For Duke it is Duke Today, acting as an RSS feed abrogator. Facebook is our #2 referrer behind Google for Duke Today.

Content Curation
Important to tell stories and tell other people's stories. For you to be a trusted and valuable source. Free tools to help curate, monitor and create social media:

Google Reader and News Alerts
Hootsuite
Twitter Lists
Facebook Steam (edit options or curate your Facebook stream)
AllTop (resource for relevant keywords)
Paper.li

903 and counting = Coach K contest
Getting really cool stuff we can drip out to our social media channels and we are getting innovative content.

Social Media Challenges
Freshness and how to cut through the noise. Hard to be unique when re-using content.

What is ahead For Social Media Marketing?
Mobile and tablets = absorb content WHILE experience is happening. Content needs to be created around experience, what is happening now will be increasingly consumed via mobile. Geotargeting will matter more. Recommendation engines = no leader in how to get the right content delivered without crazy filtering and streaming. Cutting edge things are becoming common so how to stay ahead is an ever increasing challenge.

Key CONCEPT = NOW Consumed Differently in Mobile Powered World
Absorb media into experience AS experience is happening like my typing this blog post as I am listening to the speaker. This "real time" interaction changes the experience and moves the experience out to our social nets vicariously including a much larger audience and expanding time.

@CaraRousseau
Cararousseau.tumblr.com

Phil Buckley Interactive Director CapStrat (@1918 and a good friend)

What are people looking for...
83% look for health and medical
82% search for a map
78% looks for service or product
76% get news

Much of this traffic is a social activity in one way or another. Social media is the new barbar shop, water cooler and lunchroom.

"I get all my news on Twitter," Phil Buckley.

No need to turn on CNN when there is breaking news. You can get everything from your social network.

Sharing is bigger than fans, friends and followers. Sharing generates almost 50% of traffic for websites and brands.

Yelp is influencer you even if you've never heard of it. The next time I visited The Pitt they knew about being the Mayor on FourSquare. Get to know Yelp, get to love Yelp but don't always trust their reviews.

Facebook
4.9 clicks for each piece of information shared on Facebook (on average)

BufferApp = Phil has been using (and I recommend too)

Marketers drool because so much intimate information = magical marketing oh, and there are 1 billion people there.

The good news is I only see ads that are relevant, bad news is they are creepy because they are so spooky-targeted.

Online numbers to tie social and search together are AMAZING (yes this is confirmed by my research shared in Think Like An Internet Marketer).

SEOMoz = what is causing changes in search results, they are: Facebook Shares and Facebook Activity, then Facebook Comments, Facebook Likes...Things shared from your Facebook page content goes up. How can we work to get our social media and search all going down the same path? Google can't ignore, no matter how much they want too, Facebook.

Social media is everywhere and mobile strategy = time to start was yesterday. Mobile is everywhere and growing, growing rapidly. Pre-2007 mobile world was different. "Who needs to be that connected, who needs a phone with them all the time," old comments.

iPhone, introduced in 2007, changed everything because mobile looked COOL!

Responsive Design = trend sweeping design and development community = platform agnostic, flows for any device. Not like the old days. Not just designing for one device, one platform now. Responsive Web Design = pretty no matter what type of device. Essentially creating cool presentation given platform limitations or benefits.

Boston Globe = 1 year to go all Responsive Design site.
St. Pauls = site Phil likes as Responsive Design

All web sites will have to become responsive. People who get to bad mobile platforms = bounce. "Only 7% of my customers are on mobile so it doesn't matter," Phil heard from a client. It might be only 7% mobile because your site stinks. Not be MOBILE MATTERS NOW is crazy.

This "mobile empowerment" of customers is HUGE.

83% adults own a phone
35% own a smartphone
58% of smartphone = geolocation apps

62% of 18 to 24 year olds = smartphones

As we get used to doing a lot on our phones, penetration of smartphones will increase.

Digital assistant in iPhone 4S = more aware than old iPhone and has a "plethora" of data to pull from. We need to pitch Atlantic BT as a local search option to take advantage of geotargeting since we are across from Macy's (lol).

Geo-fencing (coupons based on where you are = going to grow). Digital fencing = SquareUp, a small creditcard swipe for your own store. SquareUp is doing 11M a day in mobile processing. Card Case is taking it to the next level. Within 100 feet of the register = open a tab and auto-checkout as you leave. Everything is linked to your phone.

Jack Dorsey, Twitter founder, runs SquareUp = interesting company you should look at who is making checkout during the holidays easier. No more lines! Worked well at gas stations now why not your local gift or electronics store.

Two questions every client should answer:

What is your social strategy?

What is your mobile strategy?

QR Code
Will QR readers be built into phone and prompt, "Do you want to access the QR code?" We tell clients they work, but not quite out of beta. Many people see QR codes and don't know what is behind them. As people do more artsy things they may catch on, but not yet.

Google's purchase of Contago? Check this out....

Triangulating people from Yelp, Quora, Facebook and etc... gives a better view of ME to market too so tools will be created to provide that 360 view.

Afternoon Sessions: Online Video

Donna DeMarco, Viddler.com (cofounder)
Online video platform. You provide content. We do about 7M embeds a day. Our main business target is small to medium size businesses.

Video helps sales - 64% more likely to purchase.

Upload once and share on many platforms. My job is to make your video looks nice no matter where it is being viewed. Looking good is your video platforms responsibility.

Gary Vaynerchuck's Wine App = great example of video to mobile.

Every minute 40 hours of video is uploaded. How get above that noise?

Video Interaction call to action.

Video Interaction invite conversations. Example The Help Disney movie used video to host chat.

AMC had a video contest where video was integrated into product.

Video testimonials = very powerful (note: mailVU testimonial app perfect for this)

Benchfly = instructional videos in a closed community.

Video Monetization
Traditional ad revenue is moving to video. The thing that is new is it is OK to charge for content. There's more than just advertising. Daily Digital good for this.

User Generated Content $0 to $5 (value last year).

Need at least 100,000 views a month before think about making money from traffic arbitrage.

Video ads on your content network can help "mom and pop shops" move into digital age.

Robert Baker golf coach (Vistrator) send you back a personalized video of Robert Baker telling you what to do with your golf swing.

PR News Wire on Robert Baker

Livestream Power of A Live Moment (Sam Kimball)
Why live?
* Lean In Experience
* Natural for social integration
* Real time feedback and sharing
* People watch longer (9 to 12 minutes for live per video per viewer vs. 2 - 3 minutes)
* Brand messaging stands out - click through rates are THROUGH THE ROOF

Need
* Web site
* Social integration

Millions and millions of "channels" and billions of minutes of video. Live streaming allows audience to "be there".

Camera, computer and strong Internet connection = you can stream video live.

Best platforms allow for multi-bit rate presentation so looks as good on Plasma as PC.

Entertainment (15%), gaming (14%) and music (12%) top charts but business is coming in at 5.2%.

HOW TO / WHAT TO

1. Video Production
2. Web Development / social app i-Frame creation
3. Promotion to Drive Viewership

The last mile is promotion to drive viewers. Key to "holistic" streaming video approach. Used invite only Black Keys music stream, available for anyone who LIKED T-Mobile on fan page.

This is called "LIKED GATED" and a great idea for FB contests. Get access to something happening NOW.

Another example is weave the live stream into a page with social and merchandising. Anything exclusive or premium = monetize through sponsorship. Look to engage a full service video production company to capture the event since they will do so in a way that makes the event look great and support your brand.

Playbook
RSVP ad unit = dialog box to create a reminder to tune in.
Social is also key. Live streaming is highly viral. Leverage social media on one of the leading streaming platforms. Engage notable to engage their networks too (should be part of contract of hiring a Seth Godin or Chris Brogen).

Geo Eco-imagination did summit level panels with leaders in tech and environment and live-streamed the entire event through banners into their web site (very cool).

New Video Marketing Perspectives
Strategic thoughts on live streaming. The "live moment" can and should live beyond the live broadcast. How create a time line of photos, videos that encapsulate the live feed. As a road to the broadcast start a stream of relevant multi-media that builds excitement about the live stream. We should be able to create a way for people to follow a channel. How do we get you in the stream that leads up to the live stream. How do we increase the social integration. Connection between social and live streaming video is HUGE.

Following, sharing, commenting and reposting is adds another dimension to live streaming events. Last, but not least, make it easy. Resolution adjustment can be a pain. LiveStream.com is trying to make distribution to multiple devices (Responsive Design) work easily.

Live pack = creates enough bandwidth to do live streaming with cell phones.

samkimball2 on Skype
Sam Kimball

Jamie Beck, Cisco on Dos and Don'ts of Webinars
Webinar = cheaper than sales calls.

Risks
So cheap pretty much anyone can put on a webinar. Over saturation. May not get traction due to other people's bad webinars. Easy to screw up. Free to me = may mean no attendance at actual webinar. Need dynamic invitations and feedback loops to prevent people not showing up.

Do have a clear title and message.
Offer an incentive
Keep pitch short and sweet
Supplement with social media
Graphics in email invitation = good and more excitin
Don't make people jump through hoops
Don't send simple text without compelling calls to action
Don't be boring
Don't load 80 page powerpoint (use Prezi instead MS note)
Start on time (no matter what)

Mike Realm Video DJ
Started as an analog DJ. Started to incorporate visuals into my DJing and Blue Man and Tony Hawk picked me up. Playing a lot of colleges and bars. I looked at YouTube as a way of showing a younger audience what I was doing. This is before live streaming.

At first my YouTube LIVE experience didn't gel, it didn't work. I started making remixes like a singer making a song. Started doing movie remixes with video editing and sound. I couldn't do those kinds of cuts live because I don't have enough hands. YouTube is my platform of choice, but the problem is how to stand out. Brought a following with me to YouTube and that helped.

What I was doing was so unique. Mike is now demonstrating how he "samples" video using a turntable to "scratch" the video like a record (VERY COOL). Mike is not furiously working the tables as the O Face sketch from the movie goes back and forth. Now a loud rock beat comes up and video of babies are crying and being "scratched" by Mike. Can't describe how cool this is. Mike is manipulating video images the same way turntable DJ manipulates samples and tracks.

Crowd is into it, clapping and excited despite it being 4:00 on a long Internet marketing day. One thing I would share. Be careful with conversations. It is on or off. There are people doing bad things. You don't want to become a negative meme.

I like wordbrush's approach. Their videos exploded on YouTube. Watch YouTube dropoff timeline like a hawk. Hotspots determine where people fall off. Early on hotspots helped me make my videos more friendly. Download free YouTube playbook on how to create successful videos.

How monetize? I'm about about 130,000 subscribers so I depend on sponsors and movie people who pay me to remix, not making a lot of money from subscriber base. MaxHeadRoom is a big influence. Put your collection on hard drive and now you go to town. Much easier than the old days when I needed multiple plane tickets to fly

Copyright issues on mashups? Not the ones I get paid to do (laughter because Mike said it in a rebel DJ way). I have run into some issues I'm not sure I can talk about. I just did IronMan and director saw it and loved it. My advice is just go for it. That being said I have had some...issues (laughter).

I don't work for YouTube either by the way, but I know quite about it. Drop off is a persistent bell. It is so easy to just go and do something else. Its free so it is really easy to use the audience. Why it is important to read YouTube FREE playbook. Best time estimate for videos = 2:00 minutes. Talking = drop off goes up.

You need to write it so your story peaks at the end to keep viewers. Mike is demonstrating how he uses an iPad to help with scratching. Someone suggested Mike do a HOW TO (agree). Mike will be full on at Summit Party tonight.

Scoop.it ROCKS Here Is Why

2011-11-12T12:43:00.001-05:00

Congratulations are in order.

One of my favorite things in the world, Scoop.it, got out of beta last week ahead of schedule and under budget. Startup entrepreneurs reading that last statement are shaking their heads side to side. "Not possible," my American startup brethren are thinking.

There is only one way to come in ahead of schedule and under budget - launch crap. The vicious three-legged-stool of startups (time, quality, cost) says you must sacrifice one leg. Get to market fast to crowdsource your beta. "Crowdsource your beta" is another way of saying, "Launch crap". Startups need wisdom of crowds testing and advice to fix the "wish we were GREAT" leg. Best path to greatness is get as many smart people involved as soon a possible and as fast as possible just ask Mr. Zuckerberg (Facebook), Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn), Seth Godin (author) or my friend Red Maxwell (CEO OnRamp Branding).

Speaking to startup coach Chris Heivly (@cheivly) a few months ago he explained a key startup concept - invest in teams not things. Things change, but they only become great things with the right team. Marc Rougier (President and co-founder), Guillaume Decugis (CEO) and a team of kids who could be my French sons and daughters (if I hadn't failed French :) have done the impossible. Scoop.it is insanely great and it came in ahead of time and under budget. Every startup entrepreneur in America tips our berets in humble appreciation. How does Wayne say it on Wayne's World, "We are not worthy."

I had a chance to speak with Scoop.it co-founder Marc (via email) a little after writing Curation The Next Web Revolution (on Technorati too). Marc helped me understand curation better, curation as fabric, curation as infrastructure. He also generously shared the keys to his very cool Scoop.it beta (my scoops). You've seen Ferris Beuller. Sharing Scoop.it's keys is the equivalent of Cameron's father encouraging his son to drive his Ferrari. Marc, I apologize for not being a good driver (beta tester). Life got crazy and I didn't help the way I should (owe you one :).

Even without my help, the Scoop.it team created a magical thing. Scoop.it makes sense of the largest, most complex dada trap ever envisioned by Marcel Duchamp or Tristan Tzara. Anyone question the surrealist roots of the Internet? Scoop.it is Steve Jobsian simple and beautiful (so Jobsian again) and it answers an impossible question. How do we curate the web? So Jobsian yet again.

The Scoop.it's team's real genius was in NOT trying to curate the web themselves. As a fellow entrepreneur I feel the sweat and itch of NOT bringing the web to a place called OURS. OURS means we have the coolest table in the lunchroom. OURS means we control social pecking order and who gets to sit where. Problem is OURS is a mirage, an illusion, a balloon popped by the much more powerful and Web 3.0 concept of US!

The Scoop.it team built based on an important and valuable idea - it isn't about what we (the Scoop.it team) do it is about what we help others do. Don't forget an easily overlooked fact. The Scoop.it team started work over a year ago. Easy to say, "of course you build crowdsourced tools to curate the web," now when curation is the new black and crowdsourcing seems old hat. THEN, when my brilliant French brothers and sisters started drawing on white boards, no one knew we would be where we are now, now when web 2.0's new social rules are self-evident. A mere two years ago no one listened if I started sentences with, "Twitter...." or "Facebook....".

I saw a crack of light a few years ago (2008) when a new door opened in my head (sounds more painful than it is :). My first Curation Revolution post was in June 2011, but I headed toward curation as early as Infinite Inventory posts in 2008. Once inventory (of anything) become infinite curation rules. One thing to sense the future, quite another to CREATE IT. Marc, Guillaume and the French children I never had (and couldn't understand if I did and I mean this on many levels :), created our curation future. How cool is that?

I will share why Scoop.it and curation may be the most important Internet marketing business trend on my new employer's (Raleigh web developers Atlantic BT) blog soon. I may toss in an article or two on how Scoop.it will help cure cancer too.

Today every American startup entrepreneur and I celebrate Marc, Guillaume and the great, smart, hard working Scoop.it French children I never had by tipping our berets and saying, "We are not worthy" three times:

We Are Not Worthy.

We Are Not Worthy.

We Are Not worthy.

Thanks Scoop.it team. You guys ROCK!

Martin

Atlantic Business Technology Free Strategy Lunch

2011-11-11T05:34:00.001-05:00

Working with my Atlantic Business Technology team we've decided to prove the old cliche wrong. We are throwing a FREE LUNCH for your company (as long as your company doesn't exceed 4 people LOL).

Entering the contest is easy.

1. Retweet this:

I want to win #ABTFreeLunch @atlanticbt - Contest Here: http://www2.atlanticbt.com/free-lunch/

2. Follow @atlanticbt on Twitter

DEADLINE: 11.23

Enter: As many times as you like, we will select 3 strategy lunch guests via a random drawing on Thanksgiving.

Free Lunch Format
As many Atlantic BT senior managers and marketing team members as are available (my team and I for sure since this was our idea :), will attend, listen to your plans for Internet marketing and web development for 30 minutes followed by ideas and brainstorming for thirty minutes.

So there is a free lunch and all you have to do to enter is Tweet, Follow and head to Raleigh one day in December (we will hold LUNCH at the Atlantic BT Center next to Macy's Crabtree Valley Mall).

Good luck and hope we have lunch together soon. Looking forward to hearing about your Internet marketing challenges, ideas and thoughts.
Visit FREE Lunch Page

Martin

Seth Godin Scooped

2011-11-10T07:05:00.002-05:00

Seth Godin's six ways to judge web site success in Curation Revolution.

Working with Seth Godin

Social Media Report from Experian

2011-11-08T23:30:00.002-05:00

Experian social media report download this PDF :

http://www.experian.com/assets/simmons-research/brochures/experian-marketing-services-2011-social-media-consumer-report2.pdf

The Perfect Ecommerce Pizza Pie

2011-10-28T20:50:00.000-04:00

Death By Pepperoni
With I40 backed up due to sudden cold and rain in Raleigh it seemed smart to bail, eat at my favorite Pizzeria (Belle Mia Coal Fired Pizza in Cary) and write about the perfect ecommerce pie. Ecommerce, selling stuff online, is art and science (why I love it). Art because merchandising products in infinite space requires skill, intuition and an artist’s sense of timing. Science because everything anyone does online is trackable.

Tracking is more properly called Web Analytics. Web analytics comes with unique challenges but lack of data will never be one of them. The opposite problem is more likely – so much data you can’t see forest for trees. Most ecommerce sites organize their world into “channels”. A channel is defined as a way converting traffic arrives."Converting" refers to when traffic does what the site wants them to do (buy something, sign up for something or download something for a few examples).

Google has two channels – paid and “organic” or “natural” search. Converting traffic also often comes from social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Visitors may stumble upon content from an ecommerce site within content ad networks or read a review on a friend’s blog. In my last gig as a Director of Ecommerce we set revenue goals for each channel:

PPC (paid Google, Bing and Yahoo) [25%]
Organic Search [30%]
Email Marketing [30%]
traditional media (print, TV, radio) [10%]
Social Media (where we put our blogs) [5%]

With channels defined we created goals for how we wanted channels to look in comparison to each other. Here is the perfect ecommerce pie for our business model:

We never reached perfection. How we defined perfection was and will always be a very particular thing, particular to the business model and vertical (category) your business inhibits. Your perfect ecommerce pie may look different, but you should have an aspirational goal since everyone needs something to strive for.

Defining your perfect ecommerce pizza pie helps you and your team see your businesses future while defining the now clearly. Defining your businesses perfect ecommerce pie (or content pie if your site is B2B) provides a medium for the message. The perfect pie is what you want. Where are you now, how far away from perfection? You want debate, controversy and a tug of war between departments or channel champions.

Your PPC guy should want your pie to be 50% PPC. If you are using my friend and a great SEO Bill Ross to do your organic work he will want more resources allocated to content creation and link development. If your email marketer is as talented as my friends at WTE.net they will argue they have the best margin of all channels (typically) and they should get a disproportionate share of the marketing money and resources for email marketing. Keep the sharp implements away from this meeting. Expect and want a smack down between "channel Chanpions".

Don't enter this scrum without a judge capable of listening, evaluating and then allocating money and time (another form of money). Channel champions should provide metrics on what is happening now, trends and projected futures. Debate, prioritize and do everything short of killing one another to allocate resources for how you think things will turn out. Create specific goals and identify important choke points then go create your perfect pizza ecommerce pie. Creating your ecommerce pie won’t TOUCH Bella Mia’s coal fired pizza, but it may be as close to perfection as you can get ☺.

How Clive Davis Saved My Life

2011-10-24T00:51:00.000-04:00

It seems like someone is always saving my life (lol). Music impresario Clive Davis master producer of such hits as Santana's Supernatural and Kelly Clarkson's Grammy winning Breakaway saved my financial life. Now maybe you can split hairs about financial life versus mortal life, but at that time it felt like both were intertwined. Today, after cancer and riding a bicycle across America separation exists that didn't back in the day.

We were working with talented Durham artist Jeff Goll. Jeff was creating large dried gourds with simple sayings etched in one letter at a time by hand. Wish I could remember Jeff's word wizardry, but I do remember we were running Found Objects at a loss and the "make it up in volume" wasn't working so well.

The day Mr. Davis called we weren't clear where rent, payroll or dinner was coming from. "Hello," Mr. Davis said into the phone in his trademarked, halting yet confident New York yet not accent. For some reason I'd answer the phone. I rarely answered the phone lost inside code (back in those days), copy writing or Photoshoping on FoundObjects.com. This day I answered the phone.

"This is Clive Davis from New York," he said simply. Celebrities weren't uncommon at Found Objects. My ex Clobbered Yoko Ono one day as we were discussing working with her on my ex's cellphone, we worked with artist Jenny Holzer, we met Robert Rauschenberg and Annie Leibovitz. Mr. Davis was friendly, chatty and supportive. He wanted to know about us, about Jeff and how we came to sell such a distinct object.

I could hear hurried, hushed conversations going on behind and around Clive Davis, but he was unperturbed. We talked as if time and space were suspended. I'd seen this talent before. In fact it is a dividing line separating every rich, successful and powerful person I've ever known or met. Clive Davis, a man whose calls are returned promptly by any music star on the planet, made our conversation about ME and my struggling little company. I've seen similar laser beam curiosity from J. Langdon at M&M/Mars, Elizabeth Edwards and Seth Godin.

It was so about me, Jeff Goll and Found Objects Mr. Davis almost forgot he called to place an order for 2 gourds. Telling Mr. Davis I would gladly extended wholesale prices to him he laughed, cupped the phone and I heard laughter behind him. "No son," the creator of Arista records told me, "I will pay retail." We shipped the gourds carefully and quickly with an invoice. Two days later a check came with a simple white card, "Thanks," followed by a large, blue, looping, distinctive signature, "Clive Davis". I wish I still had the card and check.

I didn't think much about it since the two gourds we shipped Mr. Davis would pay for dinner but wouldn't keep the wolf from the door. "Did you see this," my ex screamed running from the other room. Handing me a check for five times the retail price of Jeff's gourds I almost fell down (Jeff if you are reading this I confess we paid you your usual royalty so I owe you a few lunches :). Found Objects would make payroll and we could eat out on Mr. Davis' expansive generosity. Now I know my life wasn't in as much mortal danger then as seemed, but hindsight is always 20/20 and on that day it felt like the man that produced some of the greatest music of our time, the nice man on the phone, saved my company, marriage (for a little while anyway) and life. Thanks Mr. Davis. You rock.

Talented Durham Artist Jeff Goll next to one of his creations. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of one of Jeff's "Word Gourds".

Raleigh Internet Marketing Meetup on 10.25

2011-10-21T21:29:00.000-04:00

Why Amazon dominates Ecommerce.
Hope you can join us next Tuesday October 25 at 6:30 for the first Internet Marketing Relativity Meetup at Atlantic BT in Raleigh.

Join Raleigh Internet Marketing Meetup

Atlantic BT Directions

Pizza from Bella Mia

More on Atlantic BT Marketing Blog

Music Maker Relief Foundation's Blues

2011-10-17T21:54:00.000-04:00

Did you know a world class 501c3 nonprofit blues foundation is located in Hillsborough, North Carolina? I didn't either. Meeting Tim and Denise Duffy and their great team Aaron and Corinne today was fun and inspiring. Speaking with these special North Carolina music makers last week I almost couldn't believe my ears. Tim shared how Music Maker grew from its start in 1994. "We have music, pictures of blues artists and all kinds of things," Tim shared. I practically jumped through the phone.

I love the blues, but have only listened to a fraction of the people Tim and Denise know of or have worked with. Here is a great riff from the Music Maker site about the beginning of a special mission:

How did Music Maker get started?
The seeds of the Music Maker Relief Foundation (MMRF) grew out of Tim and Denise Duffy’s close relationship with Guitar Gabriel and several elderly African-American entertainers around Winston-Salem, North Carolina. After completing a M.A. in Folklore from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1989, Tim Duffy began documenting area blues artists. Together with these artists, Tim and Denise stood in commodity cheese lines, paid bills and performed at festivals and venues across the US and Europe, including the Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall.

In seeking performance and recording opportunities for the artists, Tim and Denise came to realize that gigs barely paid them enough to cover expenses and record companies were only interested in young acts that could sell millions of CDs. The music industry just was not working for these artists. The prospects were even bleaker for artists too old or infirm to travel and perform. Something needed to be done quickly to preserve the music and the musicians.

Visiting Music Maker today was an amazing, special day. Music Maker is located in a Carolina bungalow in Hillsborough. Tim was sitting on a log talking on the phone as we drove up on a perfect fall day. The first thing we noticed were life sized cutouts of blues artist looking out the foundation's large front window. Tim and other great photographers photographs are in the first gallery. There is a magical chair by Winston-Salem folk artist Sam the Polka-Dot Man and pictures, pictures and more incredible pictures. Standing in the outer gallery you can hear the music, deep inhalations and smoky blues of these American treasures. Tim, Denise and the entire Music Maker Relief Foundation team are treasures too. I purchased 2 tickets to Tap the Blues on 11.11 and hope you will do the same. Other ways you can help keep the blues alive include:

Donate to Music Maker Relief Foundation Today (before 1.10.11 tax deadline)

Become A Member (I went for the Givin' It Back subscription because I wanted the amazing CDs)

Follow Music Maker Blues on Twitter

Friend Music Maker Foundation on Facebook

Blog about Music Maker Foundation,

Bella Mia - What Can The Best Pizzeria Teach About Internet Marketing

2011-10-11T23:37:00.000-04:00

Late on a rainy Tuesday night, my second day as Director of Marketing for Raleigh web developers Atlantic BT, my thoughts, like many Internet marketers, turned to pizza. Remembering the happy accident of now working on the north side of Bella Mia Coal Fired Pizza in Cary I pulled in for a treat. Rick Guerra and his sons Louis and Anthony create the best pizza on planet earth and their restaurant is now on my way home to Durham.

After a smiling wave from Rick and a, “Welcome back,” from my amazing waiter Patrick as I walked in I got seated and knew exactly what I wanted. On my first visit to Bella Mia, the best pizzeria on earth, Patrick asked me a few questions and then made two great suggestions telling me the story of how Bella Mia’s tiny pepperonis curl and blacken at the edges as they cook in Bella Mia’s “authentic coal fired” oven. Patrick also almost whispered one of my favorite things – Mexican Coke’s with real cane sugar. “You had me at hello,” I remember thinking.

Tonight’s visit confirmed Bella Mia’s culinary greatness and got me thinking about lessons makers of the best pizza on earth could teach Internet marketers. Bella Mia’s passion, love and authenticity is immediate, warm and comforting. This special restaurant is also transparent. You watch Louis and Anthony make pizza, sliding your pizza into the long fire. You smell your coal fired pizza long before the pizza hits your table.

Smell is only one of the senses Bella Mia engages. Italian crooners sing love songs covering excited conversations as I wrapped my hand around a cold Mexican Coke. Your taste buds will never be more alive than when pizza arrives so fast FedEx could learn lessons. Eating, or allowing my pizza to melt in my mouth, turned my thoughts to what pizza, great restaurants and web design have in common:

Web Site Design	Bella Mia
User Interface (look and feel)	Lighting
Navigation	Menu
Music	Colors
Content	Food
Atmosphere	Social Media
About	Owner
Organic SEO	Reviews
PPC	Word of Mouth
Email Marketing	Remembering Me
Shopping Cart	Bill
Images	Environment

Bella Mia is a carefully planned environment, an environment sending powerful relax, enjoy life and discover a new sense of time signals. Time slows as external cares melt. Bella Mia wraps a comfortable blanket around you. Love, passion and emotion weave their way into your crowded, chaotic senses. You feel your shoulders relaxing as tensions drop.

Great user interface (UX) designers create the same languid seduction as Bella Mia. I admired Atlantic BT's UX designers before joining the firm (read my LI recommendation for Mark Foulkrod). Sites such as The Rice Diet Program, Habitat for Humanity and Communities In Schools weave user experience, site navigation and emotional branding into seamless atmospheres, into online warmth.

Discussing projects as a client with Atlantic BT several years ago I never appreciated the kitchen ballet between programmers who understand search engine optimization (SEO) in a unique structural way I can't wait to fully understand (going to take a bit), UX designers who flow chart before they draw and conductors and project managers who fly from one side of the Atlantic BT building to the other on razors saving seconds and channeling a creative play that makes creating web site warmth possible.

Branding is fine, important and omnipresent, but I'm an ecommerce guy. Like most ecommerce people I think in Calls To Action and user hierarchies striving for an illusive, uncrowded, pure, converting simplicity. Warm languid seduction and calls to action are rare and difficult combinations. One idea tends to mutually exclude the other. Normally languid seduction eliminates effective calls to action and vice versa.

Can you visit Zenph.com and NOT click on BEFORE and AFTER? I dare you to try and you will fail. I've been creating B2B and B2C ecommerce web sites since FoundObjects.com in 1999 and the Zenph Call To Action (CTA) is pure UX design, programming and marketing genius.

Look at my fellow Vassar grad Caterina Fake's magical Hunch.com design, or Quora's seamless content, form and profile or Scoop.it's curatorial splendor for similar feats of web design artistry. I don't know why simple is so hard to create, but it is. Less so now thanks to an emerging new group of powerful right brainers.

If, as Daniel Pink suggests, we are leaving hard edged financial and computational dominated world of our recent past to enter a new artistic age we may be sitting in the front row of a new kind of museum, a living museum whose calling card is the web's constant NOW and magical purity only previously attainable by Greek Gods and mythic heroes.

Surely it takes mythic heroes to create the finest pizza on earth and web sites to match.

I will be cooking up blog posts on a regular basis. Please follow @AtlanticBT and LIKE us on Facebook. Take issue with my discovery of the best pizza on earth? Share your favorite pizza story (or any other comment, idea or suggestion) to Martin.Smith(at)AtlanticBT.com.

Thanks,

Martin

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Martin Smith
Director of Marketing
Atlantic BT
@ScentTrail

AtlanticBT Raleigh Web Developers

2011-10-07T00:10:00.000-04:00

Walking in the door I felt something. I was visiting Mark Foulkrod, COO of Atlantic BT, a few weeks ago with John Kean. People flew from Atlantic BT's East Wing to the West Wing on scooters. I caught pieces of interesting web marketing conversations as Mark led us to his office overlooking Crabtree Valley Mall. Settling into Mark's office we talked Internet marketing with speed and fury. It is not that we don't have lives, at least not completely (LOL). We love what we do, would do it for free and love building toward the impossible goal of ever figuring Internet marketing out.

Internet marketers are a special breed. Great jazz musicians have a lot in common with Internet marketers. Seeing Miles Davis years ago I watched as the master waited, listened and then built a new wing on the house his young band had just created. Miles' young band shook their heads as he worked finger magic on top of their substantial base. Yes, that was the feeling at AtlanticBT. Great jazz riffs happening, building and looking for brother and sister riffs. Energy is infectious and Atlantic BT's Raleigh web development energy met me at the door, got my attention and continued to build.

Mark followed Martin's Ride To Cure Cancer and helped us ride a bicycle across America last summer. Sitting in his office we discussed climbing Marathon Mountain, reaching the Continental Divide, falling (more than once), and learning hard life lessons. Constant learning is another jazz / Internet marketing connection. If Miles could learn new things so can we all, always. Mark shared great book recommendations including Fierce Conversations as John and I made notes on our iPhone (still can't get used to that, but MOBILE she is a coming).

We talked about the Cure Cancer Store and several very cool projects AtlanticBT is working on. It was a great Friday afternoon conversation before John had to head home and resume work for BofA and take care of his 3 great sons. Thanking Mark I mentioned how broke one becomes leaving a good job as a Director of Ecommerce to ride a bicycle across America. I asked Mark to share my resume thinking I would love to work for Mark, Jon, Matt and with the Atlantic BT team but realizing they just expanded.

Mark let me know Atlantic BT was looking for a Marketing Director and asked if I would be interested. The answer to that question is always YES. We had more great meetings each building on thoughts from the previous. Today I met AtlanticBT's creative, intelligent and hard working marketing team and accepted Jon, Mark and Matt's offer to join a new band. Reading Robert Rose's Managing Content Marketing and Vogler's The Writer's Journey I can't help but think of the Hero's journey.

Having realized a lifelong dream my questing hero days are behind me. I will never forget my reaction when a very nice Duke nurse ask me innocently if I would ever ride across America again. "NO," was so immediate and forceful it shocked us both. This was less than a week after returning from LA, but one's immediate reactions are often the truth. America is out, but Martin's Ride To Cure Cancer in France sounds intriguing and exhausting (lol).

Best to know what stage of life one is in. I've always had GREAT coaches and mentors starting when my father coached my first football team in Dallas. My time on the field may be over, but coaching, helping, listening and continuing to think creatively about the strange thing I've come to love - Internet marketing - feels like home, feels like fun.

I know there are great coaches reading this. Please share any advice, tips and ideas remembering I won't have a whistle or clipboard :). I will have a talented team of young Internet marketing jazz musicians who can PLAY....just like Miles.

Thanks to family, friends and mentors for helping me become the new Marketing Coach at the best web development company in Raleigh. Look for Atlantic BT coming to a GoTo Meeting near you :).

Martin

P.S. Cure Cancer Store is still launching 1.2012, so please LIKE on Facebook.

---
Martin Smith
Director of Marketing
AtlanticBT, Raleigh, NC

Web Copywriting Revolution NOW Please

2011-10-05T19:44:00.001-04:00

My Spidey Senses are tingling. My "Something is about to change in Internet marketing alarm," went off loudly at Content Marketing World in Cleveland a few weeks ago. Meaningful customer segmentation has been more promise than fact. The combination of customer segmentation with content management and content network marketing more dream than reality.

A dream I've seen bits and pieces of from companies such as BayNote and PowerReviews. As much as great Internet marketers know how critical it is to present just the right information at the right time actually doing so is illusive. Illusive because there are two parts to the problem: right brain creativity and left brain programming logic (and software tools).

I saw more sophisticated thinking on meaningful customer segmentation from Joe Pulizzi, Robert Rose and Sally Hogshead at Content Marketing World than ever. Managing Content Marketing from Rose and Pulizzi cracks the Jungian archetype into a pliable strategy, so the right brain marketing stuff is finally moving fast. Now we need web developers like IdeaLaunch, Endeca, Drupal, Joomla and WordPress to understand our content management needs including:

Easy creation of content snippets
Moving Snippets to many contexts without duplicate content penalties
Read the cookie and wrap the customer (similar to ad serving)

Content Snippets - The Siftable Thing
Seeing Siftables for the first time my mouth dropped open. Cool technology yes, but Siftables showed what content needs to do - be easily able to be "poured" into whatever vessel content managers want it in. Amazon does this so well. They slice, dice and recombine content in ways Google LOVES instead of creating penalties. Wish Amazon would share THAT API :).

Moving Snippets
Content managers should be able to move and recombine content snippets in any way, in any dimension and on any page needed. We need a content management dashboard that functions like an iPad where managers can spin snippets into new combinations as easy as moving around on an iPad. Content with three dimensional tags could also be algorithmically combined since we can't create or curate content nearly fast enough.

Read The Cookie
Most conversions come on ecommerce sites after several visits. Any ecommerce site MUST show visitors new but relevant content. Read my cookie and figure out how to have a relevant conversation. A "relevant conversation" may be variations on themes already seen, but variations PLEASE. If a visitor doesn't convert from X approach throw Y and Z at them. Presenting relevant variations on content shows respect, creativity and intelligence. Showing visitors the same old same old shows the opposite. Read the cookie and use an ad server-like approach to change visitor snippets to something new based on past paths and previous exposure.

VIDEO: David Merrill demonstrating his amazing MIT Labs creation SIFTABLES

What To Do Now
Wishing doesn't make it so, but "siftable" content snippets are on our content marketing horizon. While we wait on the left brainers to create new tools buy Managing Content Marketing and learn to think, write and act like a hero. First step is write better web copy. Next is to curate your content into coherent "acts" (see Cycle to Story map on pg. 56) and finally snippetize your content by wrapping tags around ideas, paragraphs, sentences and words. Here is an example.

Cure Cancer Store - Snippet Content Example
Categories: Electronics, Home and Hearth and Kitchen and Fine Dining
Products: Apple iPod, P&G Swifter, Dualt Toaster
Tag: Cancer Samurai

By tagging across categories and seemingly asynchronously I create a super-relationship. Within each of these products I could tag individual words, sentences or entire paragraphs. Tags become the glue that binds content together when and how a content manager wants. Creating as many dimensions as possible is a "why not" since tagging costs little in the beginning. Our new content management tool must allow for easy tag editing a la Delicious or Hunch and external curation via cool tools such as Scoop.it and Feedzilla.

Do you see the problem? This kind of three dimensional content management requires Star Trek chess thinking and a dashboard responsive enough to present one dimension and then the other without breathing hard. Content managers need to see and test snippet combinations in a visual production-like but search engine spider free environment before pushing live to sites.

Content managers need to view content first one way then the other with ease and the ability to make notes for later followup. Content managers also need smart algorithms capable of doing some snippet combination and page creation work. This is the infinite Rubik's cube of content. Content management engines should create new information patterns based on business rules and input from feeds, editors and trends. In Platforms vs. Websites I speculated how Amazon would react if the Brooklyn Bridge fell. Amazon would have a landing page up in seconds and so should we all.

Are your Spidey Senses tingling yet? Mine are ringing in my ears.

VOTE in Cancer Samurai Logo Design Poll

2011-10-04T19:26:00.001-04:00

31 Votes in so far and a real horse race between 2 designs. Voting Ends Friday October 7th at noon.

Vote Now For Cancer Samurai Logo Design

Thanks to 99Designs we've narrowed the Cancer Samurai logo to 8 designs. Please vote for your favorite and share the link below with friends whose design eye you trust. Thanks, Martin

Logo Back Story
This logo will serve two masters. It will be printed on products such as t-shirts, mugs and caps AND it will be a trust mark identifying products like Apple iPods and Swifters that help cancer patients, their families and friends.

Thanks and please remember we are all Cancer Samurai :). M

Cure Cancer Store
Cancer Samurai will be the private label brand within our Cure Cancer Store. The Cure Cancer Store launches 1.2012, but please LIKE it now on Facebook.

LIKE Cure Cancer Store on Facebook

Thanks,

Martin

---
Martin Smith
Founder, Cure Cancer Store
@ScentTrail
@Mobriff

Everlast We Fight For A Cure

2011-10-03T16:25:00.003-04:00

How cool is the new Everlast "We Fight For A Cure" campaign complete with hard body athletes and pink boxing gloves. Every cancer patient, their friends and family know cancer is the fight of their lives. Every cancer survivor and patient feels better prepared now with a cool brand like Everlast joining the fight. Kudos to Everlast for creating such a great, shocking, sexy, compelling and generous campaign. THANKS.

Follow Everlast_ on Twitter

Everlast We Fight For A Cure Campaign landing page

Everlast.com Homepage

Everlast's We Fight For A Cure campaign is firing on all social network marketing cylinders with some of the best web graphics around. Check out their We Fight video...

Why Hunch Rocks

2011-09-30T21:42:00.001-04:00

Yes the world is replete with a million new tools all clamoring for attention and interaction. Read Platforms vs. Websites and Curation The Next Web Revolution on ScentTrail on Technorati to find out why it seems like we are in an infinite loop of new content curation tools.

Don't let Hunch.com's magical tool get lost in the tool stew. Hunch.com is a magical mystery tour of a tool. Its crisp, clean and immediately easy to understand user interface makes you want to jump in and start making recommendations. I've been using Tumblr more lately, but am finding Hunch more fun, easier, faster and better looking without all the selecting and modifying a template pain I went through on ScentTrail on Tumblr (pain is too big a word, a couple of hours of building really isn't so painful).

Amount of build time on Hunch? Zero

Hunch's interface is so clean, the picture rendering so crisp and clear it makes you feel like you are scrape booking but in an incredible cool way. Tools that will stay are self reinforcing. Each time you use it you want to use it more. Hunch.com meets that test many times over. I think about it even when I am not using it. I also think about some of the very creative people and their fascinating and wide reaching recommendations. Here are a few of my favorite Hunch.com contributors:

Benjamin De Baets ictus

Jon Russell jon

Kookyukie

jcarpenterclicks

Chris Dixon chris

Stephanie Terry stephanie4terry

and me (used Mobriff for this one): MobRiff

Create a Hunch.com account. You will find cool new stuff, I just picked up The Noun Project from Stephanie Terry, with the least effort of any thing half as cool.

Note to Not-For-Profits - load your brands into Hunch. It is FREE and may help you build traffic, increase your donor list and donations. Just be sure to make a commitment to update your profile with fresh recommendations every now and again. Nothing worse than someone just trying to take out of these social network environments.

To the talented, and I mean TALENTED, design and development team at Hunch.com I say THANKS. Amazing work, simply amazing.

Mobriffer :)

How To Write Viral Content

2011-09-30T09:04:00.000-04:00

“How can I create great content I sell pens,” was a question I heard recently. This problem of "boring content" was also a common concern at Content Marketing World a couple of weeks ago in Cleveland. Today’s post shares 3 lessons in creating what Seth Godin calls “Purple” content:

Tell a story
Get others share a story
Create a storytelling contest

Tell A Story
When I was in Mrs. Hill’s second grade class I couldn’t spell. Many of my letters were backwards, vowels were often in the wrong place or order, letters before endings were double when they should be single and vice versa and my writing looked more like a Pollack drawing than words a non-alien could understand. My saving grace was I could do math very fast. After several long conversations with Mrs. Hill my mother insisted she would take care of it.

My mother has never shared what Mrs. Hill plan for my future was, but my mother wasn’t having it. Everyday after school I left my friends, who enjoyed nothing more than running by my window screaming, to practice spelling with rules and cue cards. I was taught to sound out words with my hand under my chin in order to count out syllables.

With a lot of extra work I survived Mrs. Hill’s second grade class at Harry C. Withers elementary in Dallas. Graduating from second grade my tutor gave me a simple bic pen. The gift was symbolic because I’d only ever used a pencil. My writing was so incomprehensible I was only allowed a pencil. I often drew pictures above words I was attempting to spell trying to communicate meaning. Mrs. Hill would take my pencil, turn it upside down and erase my scribbles writing the word in perfect second grade teacher script. My tutor, I forget her name but she was an attractive, tall brunette studying for her masters at SMU, presented a gift-wrapped box with a bow with a huge smile. I remember what she said, “I’m very proud of the work you’ve done and it is time you graduated.” This was in the summer. I’d started summer school and was a little confused.

I tore into the box. Seeing the pen I understood. Mrs. Hill was gone. I didn’t need to use a pencil anymore. My tutor’s gift was a parting gift. I looked up and saw a small my tutor wipe a small tear. She hugged me, stood up, hugged my mother and left our house at 11410 Straight Lane in Dallas. Forty years later writing is a large part of how I’ve been able to make a living. I was selected to write the ScentTrail posts on Technorati based on submitted writing samples. I write business plans for investors and funding committees. I rode across America last summer and several people have shared how much they enjoyed reading Martin’s Ride To Cure Cancer blog posts. One friend even told me, “I felt like I was there.” This is how a pen changed my life.

When in doubt, tell a story to capture attention and create content others will want to share.

Get Others To Share Their Story
We tell stories. Storytelling is what separates us from sloths and chimps. If your ecommerce site doesn’t have reviews then hire either Bazaar Voice or Power Reviews to add customer reviews immediately to your site. If you don’t have the Facebook LIKE button all over your content and site add it as soon as humanly possible. Byron White, creator of IdeaLaunch and one of the best search engine minds around, said he thought Facebook LIKEs were the new links in Google’s evaluation of a page’s value. Install evaluation tools everywhere and then ask your audience to review the reviewers. Once you find great reviewers who are loved by your customers elevate them above the crowd. Amazon elevates with their hotly competed for Top 1,000 Reviewer. You can’t tell me people break their backs to be a Amazon Top 1,000 reviewer for the free books. They do it for the social status, the social status created by the elevation.

When someone writes a great review ask permission to use it in different context. I know your terms say you own the content, but ask anyway. When you elevate a review’s value by using it in your content you send a powerful message. Our reviewers are smart, important and we care what they say”, is one clear message sent when you incorporate customer supplied content in your company, brand or product marketing.

Create A Storytelling Contest
Contests and games are Internet marketing currency. When in doubt crowdsource may be the motto of our connected marketing times. Contests are great PR catchers and can produce great content before, during and after. If you are having trouble creating purple cow content develop a contest and reap the traffic, new content and search engine marketing (SEM) and search engine optimization (SEO) rewards.

How Miles Davis Saved My Life

2011-09-28T19:46:00.003-04:00

Read how Miles saved my life on Martin's Ride To Cure Cancer.

Related Posts:

Seeing Miles Davis & Seeing Miles Davis 2

Images are (c) the great Sony Music Legacy site MilesDavis.com.

Follow Sonny's Miles Davis Twitter.