the Wine Magnet Blog

My WineingWomen Blog is Migrating to The Wine Magnet

2013-10-14T07:12:00.000-07:00

Hello my Readers-at I'm posting this update just to let you know that my former blog entitled "WineingWomen" is now here on blogger. I will blend it into my Wine Magnet blog, using this URL in the future. I hope you will continue reading and following my wine adventures.

Please also feel free to send in your comments and questions. I love interacting and would like to know what wine questions, suggestions or just fun facts you have.

This weekend I had the opportunity to share an amazing Super Tuscan from Gaja. Here's an excerpt from The Italian Wine Merchant of this most amazing Wine maker and his background, journey and wines.

"The Gaja estate’s qualitative supremacy and cachet are not solely attributable to Angelo. In fact, his father’s 1961 Barbaresco may be the most profound bottling of its designation ever to be produced. The Gaja name represents a legacy of quality that has evolved since the family immigrated from Spain over 300 years ago.

Angelo maintained his family’s high standards of production while inaugurating a new stylistic direction—more often than not through measures that incited controversy. Foremost among these was his inaugural use of barrique in the vinification of his 1975 Barbaresco cuvée. Gaja is widely credited with having instituted this practice, the objective of which is to soften the formidable tannins of the Nebbiolo grape, thereby producing a wine that is richer and more concentrated in its fruit expression than traditional models. Other early efforts included the reduction of crop size, shortened pruning of Nebbiolo vines, and decreased fermentation periods.

The 1967 debut release of Sorì San Lorenzo began his pioneering work with the vinification of single-vineyard wines. This was succeeded by two additional crus, Sorì Tildin (1970) and Costa Russi (1978), both of which derive from the Roncagliette Vineyard. Each member of this legendary trio is both recognized for achieving a substantive period of maturation and avidly sought on the collector’s market, where all invariably enjoy a substantive degree of appreciation. Gaja didn’t stop there, however, going on to defy Piemonte’s varietal protocol by relaunching Cabernet Sauvignon’s presence in the region after nearly a century-long absence, a revolutionary act captured in the vineyard’s name, Darmagi— meaning“what a pity”—the expression his father would utter when he passed by the spot, formerly a Nebbiolo site. He continued to elicit unrest and disapprobation through his dedicated planting of Chardonnay in the Gaia & Rey Vineyard (1981), the source of his now famous eponymous bottling. This was followed shortly thereafter by a vineyard for Sauvignon Blanc—Alteni di Brassica."

Thanks and happy sipping!
Laura

7 Quick Steps to Maximizing Webstie Traffic: from Hubspot

2010-03-25T12:03:00.000-07:00

Here's the Shortest Tutorial Ever on SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
1) Find keywords. Pick a list of words relevant to your business. Think about which words are most likely to get people to do what you want them to do (convert into leads) and focus on those words. Then pick one word (or phrase) to use on one page of your site. For more detailed info, read: Detailed Internet Marketing Keyword Tips.

2) Put keywords in Page Title. The Page Title is one of the most important things that Google and other search engines evaluate to determine what is on a web page. Put your keyword or phrase in the title, keep it short. For more detailed info, read Why a Web Page By Any Other Title Would Not Rank As Well.

3) Put keywords in Page URL. Google and other search engines also use the text of the URL of the page to determine the content of the web page. You should use your keyword or phrase in the URL of the web page - either the folder/directory structure or the HTML file / page name itself.

4) Put keywords in Meta Data. While the page metadata (Page Description and Keywords) are not nearly as important as they used to be, they still count. Take advantage of them by putting your keyword or phrase there. The description should be readable by a person and make sense and the keyword metadata should focus on your keyword or phrase - do not make it long, less is more. For more detailed info, read Understanding the Magic of Meta-Data.

5) Put keywords in your H1 text. The H1 text is usually the title of an article or some larger bold text at the top of your page. Google and the smaller search engines can see this and they put extra importance on the words in the H1 text. Make sure your keyword or phrase is there.

6) Use keywords in the page content. Putting the keyword in your page content also signals to search engines that the page is actually about the keyword and should show up in search results. I have heard from "experts" that you should use your keyword anywhere from 4-6 times to 10-12 times. My advice is to just write naturally.

7) Monitor your rank. Give the search engines some time to do their thing (couple days) and then keep checking your rank to see what happened and track your progress.
Source: Hubspot.com newsletter
We help you do it all at www.theWineMagnet.com......

Top 5 Reasons to Pay Attention to Location Based Marketing

2010-03-22T12:11:00.000-07:00

If you keep up with this ever-changing techno-social marketing phenomenon, you have certainly been hearing much and more about the onslaught of location based marketing and networking. Think Four Square, or Gowalla. But the latest and greatest, from my estimation is DoubleDutch, which allows for branded white label apps. In any case, more of these will continue to come to our attention. Got a mobile device? Will have have to face this reality.....

But the Top 5 Reasons we should be paying keen attention:

1. Soon every website and service will be able to tell where you are, opening up the floodgates for location-based marketing and blurring the budget lines for advertisers.

2. Borrell associates projects in its upcoming mobile report that location-based mobile spending will hit $4 billion in 2015, up from $34 million in 2009. Including ad spending with promotions, events and research, Borrell estimates mobile as a whole will dominate U.S. interactive marketing spending as soon as 2014 with 70% share, or $56 billion.

3. Companies such as Placecast "geo-fence" retail locations and, once you opt in, blast FYIs or offers texts when you're within a determined radius, blurring the lines between signage, couponing and mobile. In a four-month study with the American Eagle retail and Sonic restaurant chains, Placecast reported 79% of participating consumers said geo-fencing programs increased their likelihood to visit stores, and 65% made purchases during the program.

4. Today, one-quarter of Facebook's 400 million users access the site through mobile devices; this set is twice as active than non-mobile users. Facebook is also expected to reveal a location-based feature in April, and Twitter released geo-tagging to developers late last year

5. A Deloitte survey in November found 19% of all US shoppers and 39% of 18-29 year-olds used their phones to assist with shopping. 25% of all who used their phones had made a purchase with their phones.

Compelling stats. It is the way of the world; shopping and target marketing is forever changed by the mobile device. This can certainly apply to the droves of consumer tourists who descend on wine country at a given time. Certainly privacy issues need to be considered but for loyalty programs, wine clubs and Facebook fans, all of whom "opt in", or can be asked directly to opt in, location-based marketing can be a powerful lure into a wineries' tasting room. Thanks to by Kunur Patelfor great insights posted in his AdAge article: Forget Foursquare: Why Location marketing is the next Point-of-Purchase.

More Evidence on Social Media Strategy: A Facebook Fan Page Shows ROI

2010-03-18T09:09:00.000-07:00

I may be preaching to the choir but skeptics still abound in the world of social media. I've written about this before and will continue to, as more studies, findings and evidence emerges from sound research. You are not stuck on an island-- the evidence is here to show the utility and functionality of a clear social media strategy in generating new business.

Here is yet another study with sound methodology that demonstrates the power of Twitter and FaceBook to promote customers, conversions and likelihood of a sale. Through smart planning, tracking and analytics, I work with my clients to also provide them with demonstrable ROI using Inbound Marketing with Social Media as an integral components. Good to see a continuation of positive findings verifying this strategy. If you haven't jumped in yet, it's not too later but creating a social media strategy requires thought, time and effort.

Key Elements to a Website Redesign

2010-03-13T07:02:00.000-08:00

Key Elements to a Website Resign is an overview of elements that are critical to your planning phase of a redesign. In today's web-sphere, the game of driving traffic and leads, and converting them into customers, is radically changing.
The redesign today is more about improving your website as a tool to drive results for your business than is is about aesthetics.

Three Key Steps to a website redesign include: Getting Found, Converting, and Analyzing.

1. Getting Found via Calls to Action: It's critical to blanket you website content and structure with various forms of calls-to-action, driving interested potential clients to you.

2. Converting: via Landing Pages: A landing page is a form to capture information. Goal: to explain to the person what will happen when they fill out the form, not just a request for info from them. Need an incentive.
ALL email newsletters and social media NEED link to a landing page, not just the URL of the website.

3. Analyze: Measuring ROI: Have solid mechanisms in place to measure results of the two above to know ROI.

Four Tips to Achieving Best Results in your Redesign:
1. Audit your current website and protect key assets- take an inventory of current site; content, conversion tools, keyword ranking, inbound links. Preserve what works. A redesign can actually be a pitfall if you loose critical elements that worked.

2. Spend Resources on Creating Content, not totally on the aesthetics of the re-design-
compelling and interesting content is what will draw people in more today than the design, like building a billboard in the desert
Don't fix what's not broken...

Facts about Content and Traffic: (*Source: Hubspot)
434% more indexed pages for companies that blog due to that additional content
97% more inbound links for companies who blog- creates your thought leadership and authority in the field
55% more website visitors for companies who blog-- via this ongoing content creation and management strategy
Blogging leads to greater success in social media reach == # Twitter followers is significantly higher (approx 75% higher) for company's with blogs

3. Make it EASY to run conversion experiments: ability to be agile and change conversion events such as landing pages
Rules for landing page: limited navigation, clear and simple, form to fill out ABOVE the fold

4. Make it EASY to measure results...the ease is directly related to the frequency of use. You will use analysis more often if it’s easy!
Be sure metrics being measured aren't too complicated or details to be overwhelming. Measure the simple metrics, 3-5 total, that drive real results for your business.

How to put all of the above piece together? Use one of the available comprehensive software applications currently on the market to do this. Use an all-in-one marketing software for this, with all features in one place and get someone on board at your firm that can navigate this software, analyze results and suggest changes. Hubspot is the one I most highly recommend. But remember, there's a “new” member that you'll need to be part of any successful firms' tech squad today—an Inbound Marketing sherpa with analytic chops that can navigate your firm through this process.

Social Search has arrived.

2010-03-10T11:13:00.000-08:00

When Google Social Search is in full force, and users understand it's implications, there shouldn't be any remaining skepticism about social media. Those who continue to ask and wonder if it's right for their brand or their company need only type their own name into a search, and witness the tweets, videos and other pieces of social media content that come up on that search to know the power of it. It's worth the time, it's here to stay. There are lots of easy and free webinars who can help you get started. But you need to start. The recent Hubspot webinar I attended concluded with a final thought: if you're still wondering if social media is worth it and you're waiting for proof, by the time the proof comes out, you'll be too far behind.

It's an exciting time to be involved. But do get involved....

Direct-to-Consumer Wine Sales Tool: Zoompass

2010-03-03T09:52:00.000-08:00

Who needs a wallet and credit card when you have a Zoompass sticker payment system!

For now, it's for MasterCard users only but it's only a matter of time. While it's only in Beta right now and works only with certain mobile phone carriers, this could be just the tip of the iceberg.
Here are the uses:

Using Zoompass, you can:

Send, receive, and request money between friends, family, and co-workers
Link your bank account to easily load funds
Shop at stores and online, or withdraw money at ATMs, using the Zoompass Prepaid MasterCard® card
Save time and eliminates the hassle of getting cash to pay your friends, family, and co-workers or to pay for purchases

It's akin to the FastLane pass for tollways/highways except it allows you to access cash or credit. It's certainly something to keep abreast of, especially where wineries have retail outlets. You could get very creative, like the sales force at the Apple store, and allow sales transaction to occur at places other than in the tasting room itself. Out on a vineyard property, showing the land, tasting the wine? Why not have a commerce outlet in that setting since impulse buying is a powerful force when emotions are involved.

I'll keep covering it and follow the progress. Please subscribe to theWineMagnet blog.

FaceBook for Small, Boutique & Micro Wineries: Part 1

2010-02-26T06:03:00.000-08:00

Good step-by-step tool for wineries...I found this via a Twitter Search. I know it's been passed around but in case you missed it!

FaceBook for Small, Boutique and Micro Wineries: Part 1

http://www.4thegrapes.com/WineMarketingBlog/2009/08/17/facebook-for-small-boutique-micro-wineries-part-1/

Point and Shoot- or rather Point and "See"-- via Augmented Reality

2010-02-22T21:09:00.000-08:00

Another way to learn more about the food products you purchase. This could work for just about any product, even wine. Say you want to know alcohol percentage or the type of grapes, or if the product is organic. This technology could be a wake up call for consumer awareness.

FoodTracer concept+demo from gusepo on Vimeo.

Augmented Reality and finding a restaurant

2010-02-22T20:55:00.000-08:00

Augmented Reality is coming to a mobile smart phone near you. Check out how Zagat Guides are cleverly incorporating this GPS drived technology. What next?

Maximize Your Digital-Marketing Mix: 10 Ways to Integrate Social, Mobile, and Email : MarketingProfs

2010-02-16T12:04:00.000-08:00

Great Top Ten list from one of my new favorite e-mail newsletters. Get some insight and make it happen by studying these tips.

Maximize Your Digital-Marketing Mix: 10 Ways to Integrate Social, Mobile, and Email : MarketingProfs

Easiest Way to Stream Live Video

2010-02-09T06:29:00.000-08:00

UStream live TV! If someone can't make a wine tasting or distributor event, bring the event to them. This FREE technology not only streams but broadcasts so you can get extreme exposure of your labels. It's a platform for the live streams and gets significant traffic. Think of it as your production studio and audience.

Now, you can even download UStream TV to your iPhone and stream live from it.

Read the WIKI on this technology--

Ustream, established March 2007,[2] is a website which consists of network of diverse channels providing a platform for lifecasting and live video streaming of events online.[3] The website has over 2,000,000 registered users who generate 1,500,000+ hours of live streamed content per month with over ten million unique hits per month.[2] It received $11.1 million in Series A funding for new product development from DCM and investors Labrador Ventures and Band of Angels.[4]

During the 2008 United States presidential election, the website was used by nearly all the main candidates to help their campaign, by allowing a larger amount of voters to ask political questions.[2] Former Senator and 2008 Presidential Candidate Mike Gravel became the first candidate ever to stream an alternate debate on Ustream that allowed Sen. Gravel to respond to all of the questions being asked, as well as comment on the responses from the other candidates throughout a nationally televised debate.[5]

This is the Wiki entry. Check out the website. We use our camera equipment to broadcast the events or use your own simply plugges into your computer.

4 Major Reasons Blogging Helps

2010-02-08T06:10:00.000-08:00

It's funny when I hear or read about blogging being passe these days. After all, there's Twitter to think about, and your Facebook fan page, LinkedIn, Plaxo, and on and on. Being part of the blogosphere should be a crucial part of your or your firms' social media activity. There are four major uses for blogs in PR and marketing that shouldn't be overlooked:

1. Being active in the blogosphere lets you participate in the conversations on other blogs, especially those that talk about you, your industry or your product;
2. Getting feed (RSS) to an array of topic-specific blogs let's you easily monitor what millions of people are saying about you, your products or your company. It comes right to you so it's easy to stay on it;
3. You can actually shape the conversation around your product or issue by initiating and writing your own blog;
4. Having a grasp of the bloggers who consistently write about your industry or product, the "influencers", can help in PR initiatives.
They are pretty intuitive reasons but often get overlooked. Next time your boss or someone at your company asks if it's worth spending the time writing or following blogs, your answer should clearly be YES. Oh, and one more I should include: blogging is a great SEO tool, with each post indexed as a page of your site for search purposes.....so I guess that 4 should be 5. Be sure to tag and label your blog posts with keyword rich content that you search on via Google Adword Keywords tool and Insights.
Anyone else want to contribute additional benefits here? Please add comments.

Developing the 7 Steps to a Social Media Content Sharing Strategy

2010-01-28T09:11:00.000-08:00

The currency of the social web is information and content. Without it, the platforms don't serve their purpose. We've spent years creating content, as journalists, wine TV producers and web video producers. Now, we assist our clients in distributing that content by sharing via social platforms.

Kip Bodnar summarizes the importance nicely here.
1. Understand what's of interest to those you are sharing with
2. Develop a process to gather relevant information
3. Three take a "state of affair" inventory on how your industry is currently distributing information
4. Segment the content by platform so it makes sense in the given format
5. Evaluate and set up cross-posting via services like Posterous, TubeMogul, Ping.fm
6. Be sure to implement tracking and measurement of each platform
7. Optimize content distribution timing simply by analyzing viewing patterns, setting schedules.
Sounds pretty simple when you distill in down to these seven steps. This is how we help our clients because while it appears straightforward, attention to detail, an analytic eye and organization are key to the success of a social media strategy. Read more details on each step here;

7 Step B2B Social Media Content Sharing Strategy
And, watch some of our videos for an idea of content that speaks.......

Asking "Why" Social Media Strategy, not "What"

2010-01-25T05:36:00.000-08:00

Read a captivating interview with social media strategist Mitch Joel.
Learn about listening, the importance of asking "Why" to develop a social media strategy not an experiment, why podcasting and audio connections are still important and an overview of his new MUST READ BOOK Six Pixels of Separtion.

The wine industry can still benefit greatly from looking outside the industry and at marketing/branding strategy as a whole. Enter the "blue ocean strategy" like Yellow Tail did so brilliantly. Make your competition irrelevant. Do it now.

Search Update: Why Rich Media Content is Critical

2010-01-22T10:55:00.000-08:00

Go ahead, try climbing the wall.....but first, learn the new rules.

I give full credit to HubSpot's Website Grader newsletter for this post. www.websitegrader.com. This free tool gives you a peek inside the rules of SEO and the newsletter stays on the cutting edge of new Google developments. Thanks, HubSpot, for validating the guiding prinicple of theWineMagnet: CONTENT MATTERS, A LOT!

Google first announced a new kind of search - universal, or blended, search - back in 2007 that, in addition to text-based results (web pages), would integrate different kinds of results such as video, images, and news, just to name a few, and in late 2009 Google added “real time search” integrating updates from Twitter and social media sites into search results.
There are a few clear implications of universal search results for businesses who want to better optimize their web presence for this new search landscape.
1) New Real Estate
Before universal search, SEO (search engine optimization) was all about creating remarkable content that people would link to and would be optimized for certain keywords so that your web pages would show up as one of those top 10 search results (the first page). But now, those 10 spots are cut down to 9, 8, 7, or fewer. Some of that old real estate is now reserved for different kinds of content across the web - video, images, etc. - that are on their own ranking algorithm.
There are new opportunities to get on that first page of search results, and businesses need to create multimedia content to take advantage of this new real estate. That means posting videos to YouTube, photos to Flickr, and tagging this multimedia content as thoroughly as possible.
2) More Emphasis on Top Search Results
With these new, visually appealing, search results part way down the first page of search results, there is now a visual barrier that focuses users' eyes even more on the top of the search results page. We already know from eye tracking heat map analysis that users focus on the "golden triangle" (planted in the top left hand corner of the SERP) and few people scroll to the bottom of the page or go on to the second, third, etc. SERP.
It's very possible that this multimedia will continue to focus users' eyes on the top of the first SERP, so your website better be one of the first search results.
3) How Do You Convert Viewers of Multimedia?
Creating content is the absolute best way to attract more prospects to learn about and engage with your brand - on your website as well as social media sites like Twitter, YouTube, or Flickr. But how are you supposed to turn YouTube video views into leads and sales for your business? With this new SERP real estate going to multimedia content, this issue has become even more pressing.
For all of your multimedia, give people a way to further engage with your company, whether it's by including a link to your website or relevant blog article in the video/image/etc. description, or including your logo or call to action within the multimedia.
4) Are You Listening to Your Customers?
This multimedia content is yet another way for content written about you by you, your customers, or fans, to bubble to the top of search results. While you may not yet have posted any multimedia about your company, your customers are most definitely already talking about you online, in a variety of ways and mediums.
Universal search results make it that much more important for you to listen and engage with your customers online, so that you know what they're saying, and so that you can promote flattering content and respond to negative criticism.

Four Great Tips for Making Web Video Viral

2010-01-20T14:35:00.000-08:00

Four Great Tips for getting Your Web Video Viral

Keep these points in mind when you plan, produce then distribute your next web video:
1. Keep it short--! YouTube doesn't let you post video longer than 10 minutes but it's best to aim for 3-5 minutes, or break a longer video up into 2-3 short segments. Remember: attention spans are short these days.
2. Be religious about tagging your videos with appropriate keywords so they come up in search. Think about what regular people search on or check out Google Insights.
3. Don't forget to include a link to your site at the start of each video then be sure to also include it at the start of your video description. The end may get cut off so do it at the start.
4. Take advantage of the various web video platforms other than YouTube, like BlipTV, Vimeo, Viddler and DailyMotion. Consider trying an aggregate posting site such as TubeMogul or Vidimetrix.
Make them go crazy. Keep these in mind with more coming soon from www.theWineMagnet.com.
watch and send this one-- it's simple but fun.

Digital Tools Help Moms Take Charge - eMarketer

2010-01-19T11:41:00.000-08:00

Don't underestimate the power and will of us Mom's. We buy, make decisions, rule the turf.

Digital Tools Help Moms Take Charge - eMarketer

2010-01-18T12:18:00.001-08:00

Sony Cybershot shutter won't open so content creation slows a bit, but not too much thanks to iPhone and Flip.

Stretch Your Marketing Dollars with Cohesive Social Media Strategy

2010-01-15T12:29:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the WineMagnet: Inbound Marketing Strategy. What am I talking about with the term "Inbound Marketing"? Think of the social mediasphere as a place to amplify and multiply the force of your markeing initiatives. The ability to leverage an inbound marketing strategy is much more possible and doable than an outbound marketing plan. The older outbound tactics like placing a magazine ad, cold calling, advertising on TV or renting a booth at an industry tradeshow is darn expensive. In effect, it allows larger firms with larger marketing budgets to remain the only ones in the game, so to speak. Generally, the returns are directly related to the investment. If you have a 10% lead ratio for the ten employees making cold calls, add ten more employees and you've increased your total number of leads (theoretically-- except for the guy who doesn't know how to engage anyone on the phone!) And those returns aren't always measureable, especially the most expensive TV campaigns. Sure, Nielsen can tell us the approximate number of households viewing but we don't know who was in the WC during the ad or how many people were watching. Their numbers assume three people were in the same room watching the same show. When was the last time that happened in your house?

Inbound marketing levels the playing field. A properly laid out inbound marketing strategy is like holding a virtual magnet, waving it across the internet and drawing in "leads for little" ($$ that is, Texas tea...) Think about it: a single fantastic engaging blog post can position you as a thought leader in your field. This will get linked to by others. These inbound links are like popularity votes and boost your online search ranking. You and google are starting to get acquainted, and isn't that everyone's goal today? Listen to how David Scott Meerman puts in in his ROI rant.

Now that post has the potential to spread onto a host of other social media platforms, get a Digg, posted to Del...icious, and get fed into a host of places by simply using FeedBurner's third-party apps. In a nutshell, you can accomplish this all with just a little time and committment, once you get in a rhythm AND a very modest budget. Isn't that appealing? Save marketing dollars and maximize your marketing exposure. Makes good sense to me.

We use one of the most advanced software systems in the social marketing world to help you learn how to get found online then track, monitor and monetize the effort. Please come visit us and see our digital marketing strategies and social media consulting services.

2010-01-14T06:09:00.001-08:00

http://ping.fm/CNtca
Business Blogging Tips for Marketing.

Social Media Content-- Making Viral Web Video with the iPhone

2010-01-12T12:20:00.000-08:00

I admit to being an Apple geek. I'm not claiming to know all the ins-and-outs of my MacBook Pro but I've been an avid follower of new developments, have sat through all of my One-to-One training sessions enthusiastically and continue to show up at the "free" classes on one app or another at my two local Apple stores. And when the iPhone 3G S came out with shoot, edit and post Video capabilities, I was ecstatic! Now we can get our clients up to speed on creating content by simply having an iPhone, I thought.

Well, this hasn't been quite the case. What's been missing from the iPhone video capabilities are the very things I train my clients about: maintaining an identity and "branded" presence on your content. A hyperlink back, as a call-to-action, would be ideal but at least an opening graphic, closing logo and possibly lower-third displaying your name is gold. So, as this year has gone on, I've been thrilled to find several free or extremely inexpensive applications that allow us to do all of the above. Following the new iPhone apps has become a hobby in and of itself-- I even subscribe to a designated blog just for keeping up.

I first discovered Animoto this summer, as I was flying home....ready a USA Today, of all things. This is not a paper I typically read but as I had quiet time and am an avid reader, I pulled a crinkled copy from the seat pocket in front of me. Lucky move--Animoto was featured! I've come to greatly appreciate the editing functions and even the royalty-free music choices. Upgrade to the Pro edition and you can add a hyper-link at the close. There's even an iPhone app version so you can carry it with you. Cool, I thought. It's editing for dummies- well, sort of. I realize that even with this "auto" type editing, it still requires a good eye at filming and a lightness of hand, timing and a sense of style in editing. Ok, so this won't put my production firm completely out of business. But it sure can cut my expenses enormously since I can use it for clients.

On my continuing quest for more, more, more in the iPhone app departmetn, I anxiously await the back cover of the NYTimes Sunday Magazine each weekend. I actually look at it before the content! It's the weekly Apple ad for another new slew of very cool iPhone apps. This week, I found a gem: ReelDirector, another editing app that gives you branding capabilities and lots more. It may not be perfect, but I'll be testing it out in with my next few videos to report back. Stay tuned for the results soon.

Follow theWineMagnet Blog on Facebook now

2010-01-11T11:56:00.001-08:00

You can now follow theWineMagnet blog through either my personal page on FB or via our digital media fan page:
Digital Media Strategies for the Wine Industry. Please watch and read!

Optimize Your Blog; Even if your not an SEO expert

2010-01-10T14:40:00.000-08:00

I found some great tips while doing a keyword search on Google Trends. I always appreciate the right column that includes a drop list of articles related to your search topic. I saw this one and thought I'd post a section of advice I found in a short but concise article by Madison Claire.

The following tips should at least keep you pointed in the right direction for SEO combined with your social media marketing campaigns.

Your page title is almost always the very first thing a search engine will look at on your website, so you wan to be absolutely certain that you have made good use of the title tags by judicious use of keywords. Don’t black hat and stuff too many keywords, generally about two per title tag will be sufficient to get the job done.

Use meta tags to their best advantage by using keywords that are most likely to be searched for by people looking to buy what you are selling. There are two types of meta tags: Description meta tags and Keyword meta tags. You should write your description meta tag in the form of a sentence.

The search engines use heading tags to find the most important keywords in your content. So use h1 as your main page title header tag, and continue on with additional header tags such as h2, h3, etc.

Your alt tags are how the search engines find the images on your pages. Use keywords appropriately in your alt tags to enhance SEO.

Don’t forget to use title tags in the anchor text for your blog. When you use this tag, a little “tool tip” will appear when someone mouses over the link.

The importance of link building cannot be overemphasized when combining SEO with SMO, or Social Media Optimization…which is what your business blog really is, after all. Google allots page rankings to every web site based on the inbound links. Make sure you do everything possible to build incoming links to your blog and/or site!

Having a blog for your ecommerce business is an integral part of social media marketing, and taking time to use good SEO techniques along with blogging will do your site a world of good. You don't need to be the expert but you can at least prompt your web designer or tech guys to re-evaluate how your site or blog is tagged, tittles and optimized.

Social Media Blossoms and Opens Jobs in Content Management

2010-01-10T06:44:00.000-08:00

For those of us content creators who have been positioning ourselves in the social media explosion, these prediction for 2010 are refreshing and validating. As firms, big business, wine companies and any firm in the business of marketing their services, evolve and adopt the principles of digital marketing, positions will be created for folks like us who create and manage content.

People say "Facebook is free" , or "YouTube is for kids", will have a rude awakening if they don't realize the value of a presence on two of the most visited sites on the web. It takes human capital as well, and I don't mean hiring an intern to post pictures. Who will create and maintain that presence, keeping it fresh, active and an effective vehicle for branded messaging and content? That will be people like us at theWineMagnet. Those of us who can think strategically, stay abreast of the fascinating but everchanging digital media technologies and train your people to use it effectively. Oh, and while we're at it, we'll monitor, track and analyze what's working, another important component. Which stream of content and distribution works? This is an important piece of this social media/digital marketing puzzle.