dotShout | Digital Marketing News and Views

3 Articles That Inspire New Media Thinking

Sat, 18 Jul 2009 11:29:20 -0400

Here are three pieces of content (some articles, some Blog postings) that add fresh, unique and thought-provoking perspectives to business. If you're having a bit of a grey and rainy Saturday, these should add some intellectual sunshine to your weekend… Content Is A Service Business (July 13th, 2009) – Courtesy of the O'Reilly Tools of Change...

We're All Here For The Same Reason: To Kill Time

Sat, 18 Jul 2009 10:52:19 -0400

Do you go online for business? To do research? To buy stuff? To influence others? According to a recent news item in eMarketer, we all go online to do one thing: pass time. As we all sit and pontificate on the power of new media and how the Internet is such a distinct and different media, it turns out that all of us (that would be 100% of the people...

Peaceful Co-existance: 6 Reasons to Love Google

Sat, 18 Jul 2009 06:07:52 -0400

I tend to be somewhat cynical toward Google because I generally do not trust authorities and they CAN and DO kill many web based businesses that are too reliant on search. But to offset such posts I figured it would be cool to do a counter post on reasons to love Google They pushed search. Back when search was unprofitable they believed in making it...

The law of the little shovel

Sat, 18 Jul 2009 02:38:00 -0400

If you want to dig a big hole, you need to stay in one place.If you walk around town with a little shovel, you'll just end up digging thousands of little holes, not one big one.Call on one person ten times and you might make the sale. Call on ten people once each and you will likely get ten rejections.The important thing to remember is that separate...

Channeling Our Inner Celebrity Through Twitter and Social Media

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 22:18:30 -0400

Source: Valleywag After I finish the new (unannounced) book that I’m feverishly writing, I plan to finally pursue “Internet Famous – The rise of micro celebrity and the end of privacy.” Alexia Tsotsis (disclosure, she’s a dear friend) recently wrote an intriguing article at the LA Weekly entitled, “Is All of Hollywood...

Walter's lesson

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 17:33:49 -0400

Here's the thing about the life of Walter Cronkite:At every turn, he acted as if he had a responsibility to his audience. He didn't do the right thing because he thought it would help him get ahead and then one day he'd get his share. Instead, he always did the right thing because that's who he was. No sellouts, no political consulting, no false...

Hard Drive Full? Try Online Storage via Amazon S3

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 16:20:31 -0400

I do a lot of multimedia work on my Mac Book Pro and with all the videos, photos and other content I am constantly trying to shuffle content to backup storage drives to keep from filling up my harddrive. I back up my computer via a portable drive which I carry with me as well as with the an Apple Time Machine. But I recently was concerned with the overall...

Why a Few Freelance Copywriters Make Most of the Money

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 12:31:56 -0400

Yesterday Brian talked about the unfair advantage that good copywriters have when they’re marketing themselves. But a discussion in the comments broke out about whether or not good writers are a commodity. The counterpoint was that good writers are a dime a dozen. There are just too many of them on freelancing sites like Elance.

Andrea Learned: Chipotle's Hot Spot: The Vulnerability of Authenticity

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 11:53:23 -0400

The Chipotle restaurant chain just announced that it will sponsor free screenings of the newly released documentary film, Food Inc. Kudos to them. There is something very authentic about allowing your brand to become vulnerable in this way. By inviting its customers to see the ugly truth, Chiptole is walking its talk of a responsible and healthy food...

Requested Recommendations on Social Networks: Why I Won’t Do It

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 11:06:34 -0400

“Looking at LinkedIn Recommendations, They are Puffery” I’m currently doing research on what skills marketers are looking for in their social media team, and interviewed one hiring manager yesterday. She told me she didn’t value the references on LinkedIn and told me that “Looking at LinkedIn recommendations, they are...

CAPTCHAs' Effect on Conversion Rates

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 10:55:18 -0400

Posted by chenryThis post was originally in YOUmoz, and was promoted to the main blog because it provides great value and interest to our community. The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of SEOmoz, Inc.Personally I hate SPAM with a passion and I’m sure many of you will agree that you hate it also.Â Some time...

Casting a Digital Shadow; Your Reputation Precedes You

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 10:39:06 -0400

Credit: Geekadam While speaking at the intimate and immensely valuable Zappos Insights event (Zappos Live), I shared thoughts of how the culture of any company or brand is as strong as the individual personification of it. Everything starts and fortifies with you. Your actions and words online are indeed extensions to how people interpret, perceive, and...

Multilingual & Multi Domain Corporate Sites in WordPress

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 10:15:49 -0400

One of the things we're doing more and more of recently is building multilingual, multi domain corporate sites in WordPress. Doing that used to be a fair amount of work, but we've been able to make it a lot simpler lately. We start the process with a simple WordPress MU install, to which we then add This is a post from Joost de Valk's Yoast - Tweaking...

What Social Media Can and Can’t Do for You

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 08:26:24 -0400

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you don’t need me to tell you that social media has legs. And it’s getting leggier by the minute. Many companies don’t fully understand what to do with social media. They don’t see the path to benefit from it. Others have tried using it…

Social Media: Are You in Danger of Being Scalejacked?

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 08:00:00 -0400

Just as brand managers are frantically trying to carve off their slice of Facebook and Twitter's scale, they're stepping onto the landmine that can't be ignored: scalejacking.

Marketing Headlines of the Week: Listen While You Work

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 06:00:00 -0400

I've been told over and over that the first step in using social media is listening. And yet, many companies skip this step entirely or stop listening before long.This week's top five news stories from InboundMarketing.com remind us to always be listening, learning, testing, and analyzing. Do these things, and you can start optimizing (your content, that...

A Digest of Some Recent Posts

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 05:30:32 -0400

I went through just a handful of the most recent pages of my blog and found some posts I wanted to share again with you. The reason I’m sharing them again is to point out that I think these posts were all pretty decent, and because you might be able to make use of them

Rounded Letterforms Arrive in PerÃº

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 04:47:56 -0400

Back, way back, in the end of the nineteenth century the Banco Internacional del PerÃº began its operations and went through numerous changes in the twentieth century, being owned by the state at one point and eventually being bought back in 1994. With too many name changes to make heads or tails of, it first became Interbanc with a "c" in 1980 and in...

Keyword Optimization: The Cure for Search Overload Syndrome

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 03:24:00 -0400

Microsoft's Bing suggested that we suffer from search overload syndrome. If that's true, marketers have a lot of work ahead of them in terms of keyword optimization. Business owner in the liquor industry Fran Murdy recently got a preview of that work. "I'm in desperate need of help to find keywords for my business," wrote Fran in a forum discussion on...

More Agent, a Little Less Conversation

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 03:00:00 -0400

I have a bias for action, always have. This need to do is becoming particularly obvious at this time, especially with all the talk that goes on. We think together a lot, more ideas bubble to the surface, more desire to see something good done. We live in an age where there should be no excuses, no reasons why we cannot act - on our dreams, on our work, on...

SEO Business: Getting The Numbers Right

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 02:44:24 -0400

What were the reasons you started your SEO-related business? Perhaps you're thinking of starting one up. A survey published in New Business UK found the following: 41% went into business because they were passionate about their idea 39% wanted the freedom that came with being their own boss Only 7% cited money as being the reason It's interesting to note...

Whiteboard Friday - Market Forces & SEO

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 02:21:53 -0400

Posted by great scott!What's the right search strategy for your niche? That's the question we're looking at in this week's Whiteboard Friday.Â Determining which tactics are going to be most effective for your particular situation is critical for search marketers. PPC, SEO, Social, Viral? Sure they all have their advantages, but depending on the...

How to make graphs that work

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 01:39:00 -0400

1. Don't let popular spreadsheets be in charge of the way you look 92% of all the business presentations made in the United States are done with templates created by big companies in Excel or Powerpoint. This is a horrible tragedy.First, programmers don't often have a lot of taste. The fonts are flaccid, the defaults are wan and uninspiring. There's no...

Zappos is Powered by The Empowerment of Employees

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 00:32:12 -0400

Yesterday I spoke at Zappos Insights Live, an inaugural conference that offered a unique opportunity to learn about the spirit and culture of Zappos through a two-day immersion program. To say it was brilliant would be an understatement. And, I believe this is just the beginning. It’s incredibly clear that Tony Hsieh doesn’t just profess his...