Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away, in the year 1999 they used  “keywords meta-tag” to help search engines understand the content on websites. Then, a few clever webmasters started “keyword stuffing”. This practice of loading up keywords within the “keywords meta- tag” and other content regions led to much-skewed search results. As Google rose to become king of the hill by providing relevant search results without much emphasis on “keywords meta-tag”, this practice fell by the wayside. In fact, keyword stuffing quickly became a black hat SEO technique. Despite its low importance in search rankings, the use of “keywords meta-tag” stayed in vogue for many years.

However, now it’s official. Google recently announced that it no longer factors in “keyword meta-tags” in their search algorithm. So, now you can stop adding keywords to “meta-keywords”. Here is Matt Cutts himself, from Google’s Search Quality Team making this exact point:

Click here if you are unable to see this video.

This isn’t to say keyword research and effective keyword utilization is not important; it is absolutely very important. However, your keyword research is valuable in providing your website the necessary focus and clarity so it can best be indexed to the specifications and goals of your company. But in terms of being useful in the “meta” tags, those days are long gone. In the year 2009, the forces of “keyword stuffers” were finally defeated!

Disney recently announced that, after 81 years, Mickey Mouse is getting a major makeover. Sure, this isn’t the first time that Mickey has received an update or two, but with every change he’s always remained that jovial, sweet, chuckling character we all know and love.

But, as reported in a recent New York Times article, Disney is hinting at a more heroic, slightly darker version of Mickey Mouse through screenshots of the upcoming video game “Epic Mickey”, due out next fall.

And according to The New York Times, the video game is just the beginning:

And at the same time, in a parallel but separate effort, Disney has quietly embarked on an even larger project to rethink the character’s personality, from the way Mickey walks and talks to the way he appears on the Disney Channel and how children interact with him on the Web - even what his house looks like at Disney World.

I’m extremely curious as to how they will change an iconic symbol that is globally recognizable, especially one with such a loyal, die-hard following.

When we head into the rebranding territory at AIR Marketing, we take into consideration all of the risks, benefits and rewards that come along with choosing to reinvent a brand or not. And you can bet that Disney does, too, considering they have every top player in the organization involved in the character overhaul, including Robert A. Iger, Disney’s chief executive.

Even though many of us gasp at the thought of changing something so closely tied with our childhood’s happiest memories, The New York Times argues:

Keeping cartoon characters trapped in amber is one of the surest routes to irrelevancy. While Mickey remains a superstar in many homes, particularly overseas, his static nature has resulted in a generation of Americans - the one that grew up with Nickelodeon and Pixar - that knows him, but may not love him.

And I have to admit, they have a point that is universally true with any brand: You either evolve and stay current with your audience, or you fade away into irrelevancy. Just because Mickey has been the symbol of a global empire for the last 81 years, does not mean that he doesn’t need a breath of fresh air every once in a while.

We want to hear from you. What do you think about giving the most iconic Mouse in history a makeover?

photo credit: coconut wireless

Sometimes that instant feedback can be tough to swallow, especially when it’s not exactly a glowing review of your product or service, and it’s just been posted out in the open for the whole world to see. And when customers are unsatisfied, they don’t hold back.

But that shouldn’t stop anyone from dipping their toes into the social media world and using it as another facet of their strategic efforts. In fact, replying to an unsatisfied customer and resolving the situation can often times make you look even better than before. When people see how willing you are to correct the situation and resolve any negative feelings, it builds trust and respect.

Shailesh Ghimire, AIR Marketing’s Director of Interactive Marketing, advises that the best way to take the bad feedback along with the good feedback is to resolve the issue just as you would in a real-life, face-to-face situation. Customers want to be acknowledged and heard, so give them that platform to do so. As long as it’s a valid complaint, try replying to the unsatisfied customer so that everyone can see your efforts, instead of deleting the comment or post and covering it up.

In the end, it all comes down to providing the same customer service you would on a daily basis; it’s just in a new environment now.

Photo use under creative commons licence. Obtained from Vernhart on Flickr

You’re all set up. Your account is active, you’ve made a few entries, and you’ve become familiar with the concept. You’ve even blocked off some time to start using Twitter. But you find yourself sitting in front of your computer tapping the keyboard unsure of how to “engage” prospects, customers and everyone else on Twitter.  Everyone else seems to be humming along, but you.

To help you get over this “engagement hump”, here are twenty ideas to get you started

1. Comment on local events
2. Comment on local news stories (stay away from highly charged political stories)
3. Comment on local sports teams
4. Comment on fund raisers and good causes
5. Comment on your industry related news
6. Comment on funny ads you may have seen (do not disparage competitors)
7. Comment on how much your customers love you
8. Comment on relevant historical markers (for example this year is the 55th anniversary of the electric toothbrush - if you’re a dentist this would be great.)
9. Respond to interesting Tweets from your followers (VERY IMPORTANT)
10. Re-tweet interesting Tweets from your followers (VERY IMPORTANT)
11. Recommend some of your followers to others on Fridays (It’s called follow Friday)
12. Discuss your likes/dislikes on any given topic - (I loved “Amazing Race” last night)
13. Comment on the weather
14. Talk about some of your special events and promotions (10% off etc.)
15. Share a link to an inspiring story, funny video, great picture etc. (use common sense)
16. Invite your followers to a Twitter exclusive event (Tweet-up)
17. Attend some local Tweet-ups to meet the community - and Tweet from the event as you meet them
18. Tweet about personal achievements, goals, ideas etc.
19. Post pictures from the farm, the store etc.
20. Have fun connecting with new people, and remember, you can’t plan a conversation, so you’ll find plenty to talk about once you connect with others.

These are just ideas. The most important aspect of using Twitter is that your personality is as important as the offers and specials you post to your followers. Also keep in mind it is important to engage on a regular basis - so don’t go a week without updating. Remember it’s only 140 characters and it takes less than 2 minutes to do so each time and you can never tell what might end up coming your way!

It seems like every day there’s a sensational new viral video that’s being emailed to countless inboxes across the world. Whether it has been purposely created, like the one for Microsoft that involves a steep ride down a giant waterslide, or it has been made with no real marketing purpose at all, like the Dramatic Chipmunk, there are some key elements to creating a successful viral video, regardless of the reason you made it in the first place.

According to the Wall Street Journal article “Recipe for a Successful Viral Video”, there are three main points that make or break a viral video’s success:

1. Great Content - Basically, the content has to be worth watching. The article also notes that many popular online videos are shorter than three minutes long.
2. Build a Fan Base - Sometimes a video goes viral on its own. But marketing a video and making it viral, doesn’t happen overnight. The best example is the video where over 200 people freeze in place at Grand Central Station. Charlie Todd, the mastermind behind the video and founder of Improv Everywhere, works hard promoting his YouTube videos to bloggers, researches his audience and has built a fan base that subscribes to his videos.
3. Search Engine Optimization - How viral is a video going to be if people can’t even find it? Aaron Zamost, spokesman for Google Inc.’s YouTube says “videos should have clear titles, an accurate description and appropriate keyword tags so they can appear correctly in a YouTube search.” He also recommends using YouTube Insight to figure out where your traffic is coming from so you can better target them.

Even though it seems as though there are a lot of really random videos out there, the most successful contain all three of these elements and have been carefully crafted, planned and promoted to become that next video clip forwarded to your inbox.

Greenwashing, coined by New York environmentalist Jay Westerveld, is a term that was created to describe any organization that puts more money into marketing environmentally friendly efforts, than on the actual green acts. The motive behind greenwashing always has the sole underlying purpose of increasing profits by misleading consumers with a green message.

In 2007, TerraChoice, an environmental marketing company, published an article that outlined the “Six Sins of Greenwashing”, and was updated in 2009 to “The Seven Sins of Greenwashing”.

You can read the full list of sins on their page, but below is a sampling of a few of my personal favorite sins:

Sin of Worshiping False Labels - A product that, through either words or images, gives the impression of third-party endorsement where no such endorsement exists; fake labels, in other words.
Sin of Vagueness - A claim that is so poorly defined or broad that its real meaning is likely to be misunderstood by the consumer. ‘All-natural’ is an example. Arsenic, uranium, mercury, and formaldehyde are all naturally occurring, and poisonous. ‘All natural’ isn’t necessarily ‘green’.
Sin of Lesser of Two Evils - A claim that may be true within the product category, but that risks distracting the consumer from the greater environmental impacts of the category as a whole. Organic cigarettes could be an example of this Sin, as might the fuel-efficient sport-utility vehicle.

The bottom line is that green is good, and consumers love to buy into green products. But before you go the green marketing route, check your claims against the Seven Sins, because while advertising your environmentally friendly efforts can be an incredibly powerful and useful marketing tool, it can also backfire, even if you never had the intention of using your green message for anything other than helping out mother nature.

photo credit: seanmcgrath

The status update is the ether that holds social networking together. All status updates are indexed in a news feed as a user logs in and hence becomes the central point for information dissemination. It is the water cooler of the social networking environment. The status update is the primary vehicle through which users maintain connection with their social network. There are other means of doing so, such as link sharing, photo tagging and application sharing, but the status update remains the singular point of reference for many on Facebook.

That is why understanding how to use status updates is very important. Not only do you need to be clear on how to use it and what to use if for, you also need to know when to use it. There is new research available demonstrating that status updates on Tuesdays and Wednesdays have the highest click through rates. So, if you are using Facebook for your company, take this into consideration as you engage with your community of fans on Facebook.

Here is an excerpt from AllFacebook.com:

A new report published yesterday suggests that Tuesday and Wednesday are the best days to post status updates on Facebook. The reason is that click through rates are dramatically higher on those two days. It’s not surprising considering that this is a trend found around the web in traditional publishing channels. If you do a press release, the best days have traditionally been Monday through Wednesday as those are the days that most people read the news.

What was somewhat surprising was the substantial drop off in click through starting on Thursday. Content published on Thursday receives half the clicks of stories published the previous day. This data was compiled across over 200 million fan impressions. Tracking feed story impressions is difficult if not impossible with Facebook Pages currently, however viewing the total number of page impressions for a Facebook Page on any given day is not thanks to Facebook’s insights application.

Name: Sean McMahon

Position: Production Artist

Who or what is your favorite cartoon character and why?

Keth from the Voltron Force! Why? Because he drives a big freak’n Lion spaceship around. How awesome would it be to park that at AIR Marketing?

What is your nickname and how did you get it?

I go by many names but the best was SPAM…that’s Sean Patrick Angus McMahon. Seriously though, who eats that stuff?! I mean, come on, it’s meat in a can at room temperature. I can’t even eat a sandwich that has been exposed after an hour’s time. It’s just not cool.

What’s a unique or quirky habit you have?

I have a sold copper bust of Warren Buffet and I rub his head every day like a Buddha for wealth and prosperity. I’m just kidding really, please don’t take me seriously.

If you had to stand up and sing karaoke right now (and it can be arranged), what song would you pick?

Journey - Don’t Stop Believin’. And you know that everyone would want to join in.

Finish the sentence: I’ve never…

I will never eat SPAM just like I said before! Now you got me going again! You know it has a shelf life of ooooh…I think it’s one half the life of radioactive decay matter. Now imagine chewing that yummy goodness.

If you were a circus performer, what would you be and why?

I don’t know what I would be, but I could tell you what I wouldn’t be-a lion tamer. We would not want another Siegfried or Roy situation on our hands because that’s what would happen if I were a lion tamer.

What is the nerdiest thing about you?

Is it really wrong to lust over Apple Computer products?

At AIR Marketing, we use Analytics (A) + Imagination (I) = to deliver Results (R).That hasn’t changed much; how we do it is continually evolving. In the past couple of years, the rules have changed in marketing. Shift happens. There are new types of media, and the economy is in constant flux. Marketing priorities are changing, and there is a critical need for new solutions that drive higher ROI.

I am proud to introduce AIR Health Group, which launches nationally today. Based on an identified need for more individualized, automated and intelligent communication models in the pharmaceutical industry, AIR developed technologies that consolidate critical information and provide marketing communications based on a physician’s individual preferences. These tools will create significant marketing efficiencies for the pharmaceutical industry and provide physicians with meaningful information whenever they want it, in the way they want it.

So how do you handle change? At AIR, we have launched several new technologies in 2009 that are changing how companies get, keep and grow their customer base, and, most importantly, helping them communicate in individualized and meaningful ways so their customers welcome their communications. Currently, we have several industry-specific R&D projects in the works. Stay tuned for updates.

There is an unbelievable and ever-expanding amount of virtually useless, yet incredibly entertaining iPhone apps on the market. They do nothing. They sell nothing. You can launch virtual sheep into the air, make it look like you’re drinking beer by tilting the iPhone like a glass or toss a wad of paper into an electronic trashcan.

But then there are applications that target consumers in a way we’re only just beginning to tap into. Some of them are branded games created for pure entertainment, like the Virtual Zippo Lighter, while others are cleverly disguised marketing tools that hold the key to branding a successful iPhone app: Provide a service that consumers can actually use, and still make it fun.

Although there aren’t really any concrete numbers or statistics about app success rates yet, what we do know is that iTunes recently celebrated its 1.5 billionth app download, and the last numbers that Apple reported in July unveiled that in just two years on the market, over 40 million iPhones have been sold.

That is a lot of buying power.

But keep in mind most apps are, more often than not, free and generally used as more of a branding piece than a hard sell. For example, Kraft has developed the iFood Assistant. It features a “Recipe of the Day”, “Dinner Tonight” suggestions, shopping lists for all recipes, directions to the nearest store and healthy snack suggestions. Of course, they are able to weave their products through out, but it’s positioned as more of a helpful guide as opposed to the “buy our products today!” tool.

There’s plenty more cleverly branded apps that can be found including the Gap StyleMixer, Chipotle Ordering, Sherwin-Williams ColorSnap and there’s even a Discovery Channel app with quizzes, video clips and show times. Feel free to check them out for yourself at the iTunes store and browse around for even more that I haven’t been able to mention. In the meantime, I’m going go do some app downloading of my own.

photo credit: karitsu