The annual holiday of love is fast approaching, and for many people, finding the right Valentine’s Day gift for their family members or significant other to express their affection is fast becoming more crucial. For marketer and advertisers, the Valentine’s Day gift, floral, and greeting card traditions make it worthwhile to offer special discounts and products.

Because they are looking for one another, whether someone is a consumer looking for the perfect gift ideas, or a marketer, wanting to promote their company’s products and services, finding the best place to find and advertise Valentine’s Day gifts can usually be found in the same places.

Search Engines

This is usually a good place that consumers are going to look first. Current top Valentine’s Day searches include:

• Valentine ideas / ideas for Valentines – 450,000 monthly searches each in the United States
• Ideas for Valentine’s Day / Valentine’s Day ideas – 368,000 monthly searches each in the United States
• Valentine’s Day gift – 246,000 monthly searches in the United States
• Valentine’s Day gift ideas – 201,000 monthly searches in the United States

Monopolizing on this traffic by making Valentine’s Day sales and products available by companies will both help the search user find a gift that’s perfect for their intended recipient, and can help drive and increase online Valentine’s Day e-commerce sales. Besides running paid search advertising campaigns (PPC), retailers could also publish blog posts advertising their Valentine’s Day products and gift ideas, which is fresh content that can help the site get picked up by the search engines.

Blogs

Because blogs have regularly relevant and updated content, they also appear high in search results. Companies can reach out to popular bloggers to hold giveaways, custom coupon codes, and product reviews for the products and services that they want to promote during Valentine’s Day. Bloggers and their readers will appreciate the free products and the information on a product they may have not otherwise been exposed to.

Social Media

Social media sites can also be a good way to advertise Valentine’s Day gift ideas, either through wall posts or custom tabs on a company’s Facebook page. A custom tab could offer an exclusive coupon code (which can also be advertised through the company’s Twitter account). A good way to combine product promotion and social media is to get customers involved. Ask them to post a video of their favorite Valentine’s Day memory or the story of how they met their significant other. The best video (as chosen by other social media users) could get an all-expense paid vacation for two. Hosting giveaways give people the initiative to check out a brand’s online community and possibly use their products if that is a requirement of the contest entry (e.g. “Tell us which Valentine’s Day treat you made with one of our baking products to win an All-Expense Paid Trip to Paris”).

The bottom line is, customers are looking for ideas, not necessarily specific products. Companies can help customers fulfill this request by offering ideas that may include their products (e.g. Dove Soap could say  “Create a custom gift basket with spa products like Dove soap, facial masks, and body scrubs”).

To learn more about Valentine’s Day internet marketing, check out these resources:

• 7 Winning Internet Marketing Tactics to Succeed this Valentine’s Day Season
• Making Bank with Valentine’s Day
• 7 E-mail Marketing Tips for Valentine’s Day
• And one funny one: 15 Valentine’s Day Gifts for Internet Marketers

This post was sponsored by Auction-Hunters.com, an online educational site about bidding at self storage auctions.

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Growing up as a white girl in rural Kansas, my knowledge of gangs was very limited. Yes, I’m part Italian, but it’s not like we’re born with a copy of “Mobbing 101.” Somewhere down the line, I probably have a distant relative that slung handguns or laundered cash, a respectable living in the eyes of the mob. But seeing as they don’t like talking about their highly illegal professions, I got all of my drug trafficking facts from the media; rap songs and Hollywood literally taught me everything I knew about gangs.

From the section of Goodfellas I didn’t sleep through, I learned three distinct features about mob members: they had nervous habits, no qualms about cheating on their wives, and they are super organized. Extensive measures were taken to ensure fluidity and well-executed plans. There were calling trees (this was before email) to keep everyone informed, code words for security, driving routes. And most everyone had a specific job, like it was a union. If these men had been looking for a business front to exploit, they would have been great professional organizers.

Gangs Update with the Times

But as the years passed and rotary dial phones were no longer the preferred way of communication, the gangs improved their contact methods. Email is now ready in virtually any place with an Internet connection, and social media can be accessed by anyone who has the ability to lie about their age – an act of fraud that I’m betting is no cause for concern within a mob.

According to a book based on organized crime, gangs have been taking notice to all the available technology. Street gangs, especially in Chicago, use social media accounts to make plans, recruit new members, and bully others. The text, The Gang Book, by The Chicago Crime Commission – an organization dedicated to exposing preventing Chicago-area crimes – tells how elaborate and sophisticated the methods have become. (You didn’t think it’d be obvious, right? Like invites to an event labeled “Weekly Mob Mixer” or tweets saying “Meet me at the bank at 1 a.m. don’t forget your Glock, silencer, and ski mask.” Ok, good.)

Because law enforcement has a hard time keeping track of the constant updates to social media and electronic equipment, it’s relatively easy for gang members to communicate online. For example, users can have multiple profiles and aliases, making it virtually impossible to track whose linked to which accounts. Throw in a series of code words and plausible-sounding life facts, and police may never be the wiser to these fake profiles. Unfortunately, there’s not a section that deciphers law-abiding Facebook users from chin-deep mob bosses.

Preventative Measures

The Gang Book, according to the commission’s president, Jody Weis, was created to help prevent the spread of gangs and its crimes. Investigators can use the book as a reference point in investigations. While parents can use the book to teach their children about the dangers and warning signs of gang activity.

To find out more, head to CBSnews.com. And The Gang Book can be found on Amazon, or at select libraries.

Screen shot taken 1-20-12.

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It’s easy to run out of ideas when it comes to blogging, especially if you are blogging more than once per week. While some people prefer to use Google Alerts or write down ideas in a notepad as they come, there is another way to get blog post ideas from the exact people that the posts are catered to- the readers and visitors of the website.

Utilizing the keywords that search engine users typed in to get to your website is a great way to quickly see the type of content that visitors are looking for. To access the Keyword Report from Google Analytics, go into the website profile of the blog URL, then go to Traffic Sources, and then click on the Keywords tab:

Then sort the report by the Visits column. This shows how many times someone searched for a certain phrase to get to your website or blog. Looking at The Social Robot’s keyword report, it’s obvious that people are looking for how to increase the like count on your Facebook page, which I did an article on a few years ago.

And because Facebook has changed so much, it might be helpful to my audience to write another post about growing Facebook likes with more updated information.

So, even though I have already written a blog post about the most-searched keyword phrase, I can still write other posts concerning this same topic, such as getting more followers on Twitter, designing a well-trafficked Facebook page, etcetera.

To stay on top of the Keyword report on Google Analytics, schedule it to run monthly (or weekly, again, depending on how often blog posts are being published) and have it sent automatically via email.

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From someone who knows nothing about the stock market, I’m able to give little advice as to how one should or shouldn’t go about buying stocks. If investing, I’d probably choose stocks the same way that I choose sports teams, by factors that have nothing to do with their abilities, such as mascots and colors. No one respects a team with a lame mascot, like a rainbow or a tree. And anyone with baby blue uniforms obviously sucks; that’s just logic. These are the same methods I’d consult when choosing my stock preferences. “Hmm, Apple is named after a food that I like, while Spam is a food I do not like,” and so on. Money making abilities wouldn’t so much matter as much as how I felt about each company personally.

So, to sum up, you should not trust me for stock advice. But, even me, the person who would pick chapter 11 over the wrong color of blue, knew to stay away from Netflix last fall. Thanks to the hundreds of negative comments, blogs, news reports, and any other form of online media, I knew the company wasn’t exactly bringing in its top market numbers … to put it lightly.

Turns out, I wasn’t the only one following Netflix’s online demise. Topsy Labs, Inc., a company that researches microblogging (blogging with a character limit) data, did a study comparing tweets about Netflix’s dropping stock prices. The results? By tracking action tweets such as “Just cancelled my Netflix subscription,” etc., Topsy Labs was able to predict Netflix’s stock market drop before it happened. But, what’s perhaps the most significant part of the study, is Topsy Labs is now using these skills on the stock market. With social media followings, searches, and data tracking, the company is now helping buyers predict their next stock market moves.

While this advancement in trading probably won’t help the market challenged like myself, thanks to the fast-paced movement of social media, investors can now have an inside edge on stock market trading.

Photo courtesy of stock-markettoday.com.

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The title pretty much says it all. If a customer has no use for your business or services offline in the “real world”, why would they ever be compelled to “like” your business’ page on Facebook or follow your Twitter stream? Sure, a friend or family member can occasionally be compelled to “like” a friend’s business or Uncle Joe’s plumbing supply warehouse, but these likes and follows are usually meaningless in the fact that they don’t generate real sales and offline conversions.

In order to get current and potential customers the incentive to find a business on Facebook or Twitter, make it easy for them to like your business, its employees, and the products or services that are being offered.

For instance, there have been several times where a business or individual has had a blurb that says, “Like Us on Facebook!”, whether in banner form, on a receipt, or even though an email signature. And if I like a business, I will usually track them down on social media and connect with them.

Sometimes all it takes is them asking me to do so. They have earned my trust and business through:

• Good customer service
• High quality products and/or services
• Unique business features, such as free shipping, regular coupons/rewards, or no-hassle returns

and even when they haven’t quite yet done any or all of the above, I will still reach out to them via social media because they promised me an offline incentive for doing so. This may include exclusive deals for Facebook fans; temporary coupon codes only released via Twitter; or even entry into a contest that requires connection via Facebook.

However, no matter how good the offline incentive is, if a business has bad customer service and I have been unhappy with their products or services, I will go out of my way to disconnect from them. Unfollowing, unliking, and unsubscribing from all emails are just the tip of the iceberg.

Customers now have the power online to choose who they connect with online. And many customers see who they connect with as a reflection of themselves. Therefore, if they are unhappy about a business, disconnecting and also talking about it will most likely shortly ensue. I’ve left negative reviews on Yelp; I’ve even tweeted my discontent.

And those businesses who attempt to fix the problem? I respect. But the businesses who didn’t seem to even notice the negative feedback or who constantly ignore the online complaints and posts of their customers, well that is just the same as locking the door to your retail business when there was a crowd just outside waiting to buy out your inventory.

This post is sponsored by Brosix Instant Messaging for work.

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For those who enjoy watching comedies – or those who are occasionally roped into watching a flick they didn’t choose – you’ve undoubtedly seen Wedding Crashers, a 2005 film starring Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson. The two characters, friends since childhood, are skilled wedding “crashers,” meaning they attend post-nuptial parties – sans invitation – for the sole intention of meeting women. And it works. But, chances are the rest of us don’t have the same smooth-talking skills (and when I say “smooth talking” I mean “ability to lie”), or the same access to wedding schedules that the magic that Hollywood scripts can provide. Well, fret no more. Thanks to the ever-growing creativity of app writers, there is now a way to find pre-crashed weddings via technology.

How it Works

Known as “Crash Corsage,” this heavily valued tool (depending on your priorities) is still in beta. (Interested parties can sign up for newsletters and the upcoming release date here.) The app includes all necessary information for future crashers within a single screen shot, including dates, venue addresses, and any activities that may be available at the post-wedding parties. And if there’s any other useful information about the weddings, you can be sure that Crash Corsage will let you know. There are even ways to earn points, such as “checking in,” participating in games, and, in the sense of eliminating the app’s credibility, hooking up with guest(s).

If you’re wondering how the service gets its info, look no further than the tens of free wedding announcement sites. The app shares how engaged couples met, proposal stories, as well as any other personal details they may share. (If you’re using one of these wedding announcement sites, beware what you share.)

In Real Life

No word from future brides how this may affect their weddings (or quite frankly, if it’s even legal), but ever since the announcement, the Internet has been buzzing with anticipation … both good and bad.

Crash Corsage will be out in full swing within the next few month, just in time for this year’s upcoming wedding season. Once released, users will only be a download away from lying their way into love – all that’s missing is a regular dry cleaning schedule for those party pants.

Photo courtesy of Flickr.

CrashCorsage.com screen shot taken 1-17-12.

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Fusion marketing isn’t a new idea— Entrepreneur magazine published an article about it in 2006 and countless businesses do it without realizing its proper name. Fusion marketing is the act of referring your customers to other local (or national works too, especially online) businesses. They, in turn, do the same for you.

There are countless examples of these types of business partnerships in the real world. For instance, a person drops off their dog at the groomers and picks up a coupon on the counter for $10 off their next visit to the salon next door. This can also happen online—after a customer checks out on an e-commerce site of a banner printing company, they are taken to an offer page for 50% new business cards from a business card printing company.

In order for most fusion marketing partnerships to be successful, they usually must be one of two things–

1. Be local businesses that are nearby one another, or;
2. Be businesses that have related or overlapping services

While fusion marketing business partnerships that don’t follow either of these guidelines can occasionally be successful, making sure that one business already has something in common with the other will create a higher chance of successful referrals, since the customer will most likely have an interest in both.

Besides the obvious chance that an existing customer of one business would have an interest in another related (or nearby) business, the fact that fusion marketing can increase exposure for both businesses to audiences who may have not found or patronized both businesses on their own is the key concept.

This post was sponsored by Brosix, a business instant messaging program that offers private instant messaging networks to businesses.

Image found via stock.xchng.

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A few years back, the phenomenon of traveling clothes became popular – at least in theory of not in practice. While I didn’t make a habit out of mailing my favorite clothes to share with proportionally compatible friends, there was plenty of hype about the Traveling Pants, the magical Sisterhood ones that never seemed to wear out or need a washing.

But soon it wasn’t just jeans getting the cross-country mail treatment; in 2010, a fancy red dress joined the club. Inaugurated by Jenny Lawson (“the Bloggess”), this infamous red dress began taking social media to the next level: in-person. Lawson first received the dress from her friend, Sunny, an artist/dressmaker combo, and then began mailing it to women across the world, so that they can feel the dress’s “empowerment” as well.

In her own blog-words, Lawson expressed her love for the dress – how she found in captivating. “I want to be shocking, and vivid and wear a dress as intensely amazing as the person I so want to be. And the more I thought about it the more I realized how often we deny ourselves that red dress and all the other capacious, ridiculous, overindulgent and silly things that we desperately want but never let ourselves have because they are simply ‘not sensible.’”

But, instead of blogging about some distant dream or idea she’d never go through with, Lawson did it. She got the dress, she wore the dress, and then she turned it into a social media symbol. She mailed it on, as the next and the next receiver did, so that each woman could wear and then blog about the dress. Who knows, they could have even blogged in it!

Yes, this beautiful dress is probably in need of a trip to the cleaners, but then again, so are most of our clothes. (Let’s face it, blogging doesn’t exactly require you to look your best on a daily basis…) But, in a world where the Internet and virtual communication are rapidly growing, it’s nice to see a movement where IRL and via-computer are brought together.

To see what the dress has been up to ever since, read about it on Lawson’s summary blog.

Screen shot taken 1-9-12.

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Did you know that Bethaney and I are constantly writing articles and web content on different websites around the internet? Besides checking out a fuller list on our Online and Print Writing page, here are some main portfolio links we are especially proud of.

Internet Marketing Articles and Web Content by Kelsey Jones

• Will Your Company’s Online Community Fail? (Post on the new site Marketing Land, a subsidiary of Search Engine Land)
• How To Measure The Value Of A Fan Or Follower In Social Media
• How To Find Hidden SEO Opportunities On Twitter
• How Viral Marketing Has The Potential To Promote Or Destroy Your Brand
• The Zone (story on the Green Impact Zone in Kansas City)

Articles and Web Content by Bethaney Wallace

• Finding a Use for Thick Hair on HelloGiggles.com
• A History of Tailgating: A Time-Honored Tradition
• What Family Vacation Means to Me
• The Benefits of Eating Fresh
• Unique program helps break cycle of poverty (all articles on this site are published under Dr. Koster’s name, but this one was written by Bethaney)

Graphic from someecards.com

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For decades police departments and highway patrols have been enforcing drinking laws with what is known as the sobriety test. Questionable drivers are pulled over and asked to walk a straight line, reverse the alphabet (a feat I’m not sure I could accomplish completely sober), or touch fingers to their little noses. But with the invention of a new product, it won’t be just the roads being checked for the intoxicated, it will be the Internet as well.

14Four Interactive, an online development agency, began making online sobriety kits last year, a program where a user must complete simple tasks before logging into their favorite social media accounts. Those who download the application follow instructions, such as typing the alphabet backward or following a moving object with their mouse, to prove their sober-ness.

To anyone who has embarrassingly typed or posted while under the influence, this probably doesn’t sound like a bad idea. Users can also “choose their hours of intoxication” so they’re not hassled with silly mind games when trying to get some actual work done. Versions of the sobriety tests can even be found for Apple and Android-based phones.

The company’s product, made for Webroot computer security, even came with a holiday version this year, sporting holly and festive ornaments.

For the non-drinkers, or those who aren’t interested in the software itself, it’s still worth a visit to 14Four if only for the color-by-numbers feature on their homepage (e.g. this post’s featured image) But, for those who may have a tendency to social media while under the influence, this app is only a free download away. Safe yourself from personally attacking celebrities in your blasted tweets, prevent blitzed Facebook comments, and never email while hooched-up again. Hopefully, with the continued expansion of the technology, these inebriated tweets and Facebook posts will cease to exist. Apology follow up messages will become unnecessary, and exes everywhere can rest assured that their profiles will go drunkenly uncreeped.

Screen shot taken from 14four.com on 1-2-12.

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