Adding social networking buttons to wordpress.com blogs

I love wordpress and that’s the wordpress.com version and not the wordpress.org one (yes I know all you techies are going to go “what a shoe”. Well sorry but I don’t particular like security issues and the fact that the installs suck up bandwidth. Blogger is fine as well in my book but I think wordpress.com offers a bit more bang for the buck and, oh wait, there is no buck, it’s free, so I’m not going to carp that the .com version is more limiting in many respects then the .org and you can’t have as many bells and whistles.

My feelings and from what I can see from Google and Bing searches on various blogs, quite honestly it doesn’t seem to matter what platform you use, the search engines love them all if you keyword and tag correctly.

I was curious to see if one could also add social media sharing links to blog posts on wordpress.com, its possible on the .org version as plugins and there are people that have done coding tutorials but I had a hard time finding anything aside from http://www.addthis.com to be able to do this on the .com version. I couldn’t find it in the help section as well but figured there must be a way.

I came across http://www.perlitalabs.com/Social_Bookmark_WordPress_Builder/url_builder.php?title=Test%20Title&url=http://www.test.com and http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/social-bookmarkings?replies=42 and a post originating from http://sunburntkamel.wordpress.com/ . I am unable to find the original post but the information originated from there from someone else’s blog, my apologies but could not find the original post I found it on. (Thank you whoever you are)

This is the original code suggests for implementing SM links and images in wordpress.com

social-bookmarking-template-sunburntkamel

It appears the .gif links are still active but wanted to insert my own and also wanted to add twitter (which I don’t know if it existed when he wrote this)

This was my version, please have fun tweeking if need be and please let me know if you have any problems or suggestions.

WordPress.com social media linking codes

I had some trouble with the twitter link but seemed to find out what worked and did not work. Two recommendations when implementing the twitter link: use bitly to shorten the link up in advance and also if you have any special characters in the title or the url, specifically & and ” change them when inserting. If the title has either of those two symbols replace (&) with (and) and delete any (“)s. The characters do not translate when posting to twitter. The link won’t work.

This is kind of a pain because you have to insert for every blog post and change the links but have not found any alternatives as of yet. The nomen should be replaced with the name of the post and the addy with the unique url. If you keep a copy in MS word and then just copy it into another new doc and sub the url and the blog title it only takes a minute.

I don’t have a code yet for Linkedin, which I’d like to add at some point, if someone has done one I would appreciate it and will add it in. If you find some links that don’t work, please let me know as well.

[Via http://chefforfeng.wordpress.com]

What the WSJ Missed: The Lessons of Lady Gaga (For Every Marketer)

Covered in blood, meeting the queen in bondage attire, and now–the WSJ. Lady GaGa clearly has a few less-obvious and more notable lessons the WSJ skimmed over. While they didn’t quote her, the internet does so here are a few finer points:

It’s Not Just About the Music (Biz)—or the “Product”

Her product goes well beyond what’s distributed on itunes and played in every spin class, club, gay bar, etc. To quote WSJ: “Though she writes her own material, she is as focused on visual theatrics, fashion, and global appeal.”

Similarly, the lessons of GaGa aren’t just for the recording industry. CMOs, CEOs and creative companies and entrepreneurs should be taking notes. She is the biggest brand to emerge in 2009.

Own What Drives Your Brand

House of GaGa gets a WSJ drive-by as “a core team of advisers.” Hand-picked from (her words, elsewhere) “my coolest art friends,” they are the core of her brand. These collaborators help design the shows, the staging, the costumes, the clothing, the hair, the lighting, the everything.

Oh yeah, and it’s under her control.

As she says, “It’s a whole amazing creative process that’s completely separate from the label.”

Share the wealth, but own what counts. Her contract might give the record company some of her MAC cash, but the intellectual vision and property are all hers.

Are you outsourcing everything to a revolving door of agencies or freelancers? Does an AOR own your creative vision? Keep a core team inside and out that’s committed and connected. Famous, cheap, and/or easy = not enough.

Put Your Money Where Your Business Is

Overexposed? Maybe, but you’ve yet to see her yachting around Lake Como or having a balcony bash at Turks & Caicos.

From the beginning, her cash went back into, yep, Haus of Gaga:  “I wanted to put my own money into the show… I was making money as a songwriter and I didn’t want a condo or a car because I don’t drive and I’m never fucking home, so I just wanted to put all my money into my performance.”

Where’s your capital—cash, focus, creativity—going?

Strong Direction + Execution, Execution, Execution

The Haus of Gaga isn’t an entourage, it’s an execution-based creative laboratory with a bias toward doing and outdoing. The briefs are simple and well-defined, with very actionable outcomes:

“I said that I wanted to make my face light up. Or that I wanted to make my cane light up. Or that I wanted to make a pair of dope sunglasses. Or that I want to make video glasses, or whatever it was that I wanted to do.”

Take away: Tight briefs and strong vision are crucial to team success. Yet ideas without execution are just happy hour conversation—and worth about as much.

Grammy or not, this is just the beginning. Get more GaGa thoughts here tomorrow.

[Via http://aliasvivian.wordpress.com]

Budgets & Benefits

On January 16th, we had our first Saturday morning seminar with Suzanne Feucht, accounting coach and trainer, to talk about basic financial tools. There were lots of participants and even more questions, so it was hard to get through everything Suzanne had on the agenda. They appreciated that she emphasized the basics: using the right accounting software, keeping track of paperwork, etc. The big message was they wanted more accounting and financial seminars in the future.

January 21st, Susan Rich joined us for a new addition to her Write it Rich! series. This presentation was on benefit-based copy, and how small businesses can think about what their product or service provides, and use that message to market themselves. We got to look at (and laugh about) some vintage ads, and point out where the key message was and what we were being sold… not a product, but a benefit. There was a lot of great discussion, so much so that we went a little over time. But no one seemed to mind too much – they were busy practicing their benefit-based copy and writing up their own blurbs and ads.

[Via http://mercycorpsnw.wordpress.com]

And the beat goes on

Just got another email, this time from Hooved Animal Humane Society (Sue’s present home). It turns out they’re having a tack and craft sale at their facility in late February–wanted to know if I would like to participate. Of course!!! This is starting to get exciting. I’ve like the idea of “expo” type shows ever since I did the one at Willow Tree. People come with the idea that they’re going to buy something, while at horse shows they’re much more focused on chasing those prize ribbons. I’ll still do some horse shows this year, but I’m thinking the local “all things horsey”-type shows might be more productive for the product I’m selling.

[Via http://allifarkasartist.wordpress.com]

Manager, Member Services (Houston, TX)

Manager, Member Services (Member Retention) POSTED: Jan 11

Salary: Open Location: Houston, Texas

Employer: Greater Houston Partnership Type: Full Time – Experienced

Category: Marketing: Other Required Education: 4 Year Degree

Employer Information

About Greater Houston Partnership

The Greater Houston Partnership(GHP)is a not-for-profit organizaton which is the primary advocate for Houston’s business community and is dedicated to building regional economic prosperity. The Partnership is the umbrella organization under which the Greater Houston Chamber of Commerce, the Houston Economic Development Council and the Houston World Trade Assoication were combined. These organizations, while still legal entities, operate as divisions of the Partnership. The Partnership has a….more info

View all our jobs

Job Description

DEPARTMENT RESPONSIBILITIES The Member Services Division is responsible for the retention and acquisition of members. Coordinates business development programs, networking events and visibility including business-to-business opportunities for members.

POSITION OBJECTIVES Drive the retention of members and assist the division in the development and implementation of programs aimed at helping Partnership members see value in retaining their membership.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES The following responsibilities are essential to job performance:

1. Manage and implement the annual membership Campaigns. 2. Identify, train and manage Ambassadors and Allies; volunteers responsible for the retention of members. 3. Design, manage and implement the member retention programs. 4. Organize programs specific to the needs of large, mid-size, and small member companies. 5. Develop and carry out a layered strategy for communicating to Members the services, resources and value of membership. 6. Maintain investor relations by effectively building relationships with Members; develop and conduct action plan for face-to-face contact with Members. 7. Manage and develop business development programs, councils and committees, i.e. Business to Business/Member to Member, workshops, and networking events. 8. Represent the Partnership at corporate and community events. 9. Provide supervision and coaching for assigned Coordinators and Administrative support staff, including performance reviews, career development and other relevant supervisory functions. 10. Design and conduct internal staff training programs for quality service to Members. 11. Other duties as assigned.

NOTES: Local Residents Preferred (No Relo).

Additional Salary Information: Commensurate with experience. Paid parking, 401(k) plan, subsidized group insurance coverage, vacation and sick time benefit hours, 11 paid holidays

Requirements

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES The following knowledge, skills and abilities are desirable for job success:

• Minimum of 3 years experience in a fund raising, marketing, communication, or related field, in a public, private or non-profit organization, or a combination of the above type experience and training. • Minimum requirement is a Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field, or 10 plus years relevant experience. • Experience in retail and customer service a plus. • Excellent verbal, written, analytical, presentation and interpersonal skills. • Proficiency in Windows, Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Excel, other software programs. • Ability to coordinate, engage and fully utilize member expertise. • Professional appearance. • Preference for working with all levels of internal and external contacts. • Ability to exercise mature judgment and tact. • Ability to professionally manage diverse groups of people. • Preference for fast paced, goal and team oriented environment. • Ability to work well under pressure and deadlines, with minimal supervision. • Self-motivated and directed. • Ability and flexibility to prioritize and work on multiple assignments.. • Preference for detail work. • Bilingual helpful.

[Via http://marketingjobsdallas.wordpress.com]

Text - a successful family business for your network marketing

If you are looking for the market, your business, there is no powerful tool than words. Whether you need to copy to the website, marketing materials, business cards, press releases, or even a business card, written on your mastered the necessary basic principles of business success.

Your company's use, text almost all the possible sale or spin-off business's future. NatureYour financial future depends on your written communication skills with a solid foundation.

You have only one chance to make a first impression. If your communication to the public after the circulation of documents or grammar or spelling mistakes, you can also have the opportunity to stand on customers. When potential customers in a written information to their view, the operators are not careful, poorly trained, unreliable, lazy or just plain stupid.

On the other hand, if theYour written communication is perfect, so it is the pictures. Whether you are in print or online communication, your words represent you to a wide audience. Please note that many people will analyze your every word when it is how to deal with these public forums.

When you leave a large enterprise, you will make the best. If the main customers are in the car traveling, be sure to clean the vacuum and get it. In the same way, you must ensure that your image is perfect in the public eyeIn a written statement.

If you like your sense of spelling and grammar did not pass, do not be afraid to seek professional help. Freelance writers and editors are available, so look for your company's best side. When it comes to the text, like a jerry-building to reduce its own throat.

We live in a very visual society. Word of mouth is not enough in today's world. We have advertising everywhere we go in the spread ofIn the home of highway billboards TV ads online, and we at work.

Enterprises need a logo and website. Communication and brand awareness that they are an indispensable tool. If you do not have this you can be sure your competitors do not. In today's highly competitive market, your web content is likely to talk about in a single day more people in person than you do.

This does not mean that they are not important for business referrals and repeat customers, because they ensure that theYes. However, if you look at the current and potential customers of the network that best suits your business, if you do not exist.

Letter signed from the sale to ensure that your company offers a picture, intelligence, exquisite, good common sense and trust. If there is no right of the text can not complete your marketing goals. How do you appear in the printed self-inflicted a lasting public image. To ensure that they carry a positive impressionFor your business and bottom line will thank you for a long time.

[Via http://businessforfutures.wordpress.com]

Pre-show marketing is the key

There are several ways to communicate with them your audience.

Corresponding some ways more effective, appropriate and cost-effective than others. As always, your budget will determine how many points you touch with your audience. In addition, remember, you should show how the right person to qualified potential customers to find the lowest cost.

Remember that you need to let your potential customers know your booth on theHall. Days line such as "you will find our booth in 1635, such as direct mail and so on before the fair, trade fairs such as press releases and other communications.

Do not let your customers and potential customers to find you.

Recent studies have shown that 83% of the most successful companies in the exhibition series (in the terms imposed on enterprises, and lead to a) those who too much trouble, in such e-mail marketing, the prospects for public participationAnd customers before the show. (Source: CEIR – (for Exhibition Industry Research Center)

You can increase the direct marketing tools are integrated through a variety of pre-fair booth of your qualifying purchase expensive return on investment. Diversity in the pre-show marketing strategy will achieve even greater results, and you will get a higher record of success, in the two tourist destination and sales growth, leading to conversion.

Please do not take a one-dimensional approach, pre-trade –Display marketing, because you is not just the desired results.

The purpose of the mass action through personalized contact with potential customers, multi-level marketing strategy, you have the ability to achieve its goals more easily Expo.

These include the telephone booking phone users personalize the imagination of the invitation, direct mail or e-mail, your products, and encourage them to visit your booth.

By understanding your audience, youThe parties concerned should show your products, and by creating a positive image and brand awareness / or services prior to the fair, objective and start the buyers.

In order to maximize your trade show on the individual effort of your e-mail concerns, needs and interests of its clients.

Need time to really determine your target audience! This is very important.

Do not underestimate the marketing activities before the show a power. In a fair and effective marketing can beSupply from 50% to the appropriate transition to potential customers.

Is always a portfolio of activities, each qualified potential customers at the lowest cost, promoting your schedule so you will be given reasonable notice of your potential customers.

It is always a good idea to better results to your list, there is a relevant and compelling content to provide part of the.

Do you want to go back, get after it when it is time to prove your return on investment, etc. Keep track of your pre-show marketingTactical costs.

[Via http://sampleflyersforrestaurants.wordpress.com]

Redes sociales

La semana pasada vi una publicidad española. Un vendedor intentaba describir las cualidades del hijo de la clienta para venderle una Playstation. Entre las tres o cuatro que describía, estaba la que tenía no se cuantos cientos de amigos en Facebook. Mismo argumento para la campaña de Obama. Y la de muchos políticos y personajes famosos. Mi sobrina tiene 608 amigos y catorce años de edad. Ambas son cualidades si lo vemos con ese punto de vista.

Con tantos amigos amigos en la red, ¿qué pasa con el tiempo que se pierde en Facebook? Si le dedica diez minutos por semana a cada uno de sus amigos mi sobrina estaría 10 horas por día hablando. Sin contar los miles de minutos que está metida escribiendo en el muro. Lo máximo sería  además ser fan de grupos de interés. Entonces sí que lograrás tener un millón de amigos. ¿Sirve para algo?

Personalmente tengo Facebook. En la foto del perfil estoy sacando la lengua, es muy simpática. Tengo 50 amigos. Y me gusta. Si, son amigos de toda la vida o de parte de mi vida. Ya hace casi 30 años que me fui a trabajar “afuera” y todavía estoy “afuera”. Subo fotos viejas, o nuevas cada tanto, y algún que otro video. Me río con mis amigos y la paso bien. Además he podido recuperar a gente que había dejado en el camino y que sin Facebook no hubiese retomado el contacto.

¿Que pienso de las redes?

De Facebook está claro lo que pienso. Solo es para perder el tiempo. También perdemos el tiempo tomando sol en la playa. Por lo tanto lo de perder el tiempo es una apreciación subjetiva. Pero a lo que voy es que para eso está. Como también están otras redes que sirven para otra cosa. Se ha hecho muy popular la red Linkedin para el segmento de profesionales. Y también estoy allí. Bueno, esta vez sin sacar la lengua, con traje y corbata. Hoy en día es utilizada por profesionales que quieren ser visibles en el mercado, ya sea para promocionar sus servicios, conseguir trabajo o hacer contactos de negocios. Entonces ¿la cosa es mas seria? Yo creo que más interesante de lo que parece. Pero no nos engañemos, tampoco es una panacea.

He encontrado allí una empresa que se llama Bridgedworld (www.bridgeworld.com muy linda página, bien diseñada y moderna, con blogs y RSS) que se dedican al tema de consultoría de empresas y están usando Linkedin como elemento de marketing y contactos. Incluso el networking lo explotan como tema de su consultoría.

A unos de los socios David Soler Freixas, en Linkedin lo encontrarán en http://es.linkedin.com/in/dsoler le he tomado prestado esta presentación que nos explica muy profesionalmente de que se trata esto del “networking”. Que lo disfruten, está muy bien hecho.

 

[Via http://gmrodriguez.wordpress.com]

First week in summary

In terms, of attendances, it had been a quiet week. This gave us more time and opportunities to continue fitting out our dojo.

we have internet access

we’re setting up the office space and merchandise displays

a small divider constructed for the reception area to offer more privacy and security

It’s rewarding to see our students settle in to the space; especially rewarding to see students from Chadstone and Geelong committing to the travel and making it in to class. One family will be travelling 1.5hrs one way twice a week, so their son may continue his training with us. Gestures like these, are incredible.

Our new class times tested and so far, only a small tweak was necessary.

Advertising in our local paper has been scheduled for end of January and February.

We had a total of 18 new trialers this week, which is phenomenal for the first week back. Next week continues to look promising.

martialjourney.com

[Via http://martialjournal.wordpress.com]

Ubiquity ain't easy

And ain’t ain’t really a word.

I’d like to think that the Internet allows me to be everywhere at once.

But it doesn’t, really.

Social networks, location based services and constant connectivity through broadband and mobile certainly help. And it all comes at a relatively low price. Or free, in the case of most social networks.

There’s a catch, though. The hidden cost of time.

It isn’t easy being everywhere at once, though that’s something a lot of us would love to be able to do. Both personally and professionally. But it comes at the expense of time dedicated to learning the network or the equipment which you are using, or, the easy part, as well as the hard part, or, the time invested in building a network, developing a message and satisfying the goals of brand development and trust, along with any applicable bottom line business need.

Now it’s becoming a commitment.

Personally, I’ve always been an advocate of trying everything. I’m anchored in Twitter and Facebook, but also have spent plenty of time using Friendfeed, Plurk, Identi.ca and the gone-but-not-yet-forgotten Pownce. For location-based fun, I’ve played around a bit on Brightkite, but have the most fun on Foursquare. And that’s just a select few places I’ve ventured on the social web (as a side note, it’s my quirky mission to reserve my name as a username wherever I go – you’d be surprised how many of us there are!).

I’ve done this on my own time. Some call it addiction, some call it madness. But I prefer to think I’m striving to keep abreast of communication and social technology.

Businesses are doing it too. And that’s where it really gets tricky.

Sure services like the recently-acquired-by-Seesmic-so-you-can-post-everywhere-service, Ping.fm lets you broadcast to the mass audience spread across the capacious expanse of the social Web, delivering one message to multiple sites. But where’s the fun in that? It’s broadcasting, and it misses the point. That’s what TV and the radio are for.

Now everyone wants to, for lack of an unabused cliché, ‘join the conversation.’

Conversation implies there’s certain balance between listening and talking. That’s not possible from the ivory tower of a social broadcast service such as Ping.fm. Broadcasting is OK given that there’s someone monitoring each service and participating in any successive conversation the initial message produces.

In my personal use of social media I tend not to link any one network to another. My tweets are for my twitter audience. They won’t make sense to my network on LinkedIn or my friends on Facebook. And while theoretically a business message does not change across various media, it should be tailored to fit the specific audience inherent to those that use the network. Simply, the MySpace users are not the Facebook users. And so on.

So, yes, it’s easy to join the conversation. But in day-to-day life as in business, it takes a healthy commitment to absorbing the culture and contributing where possible.

Pick your battles. Learn the experience each service offers. Adapt to it. Don’t treat your audience, your friends, your network, like dummies.

They know when you’re faking it.

Sounds like a lot of work.

[Via http://matthewgunn.com]

The photo's of a pilot cleaning his windscreen. But what do you see?

This is what I saw as I was boarding a Jetstar flight last week. There’s the pilot, perched in the window ledge, cleaning his windscreen with a cloth.

I’ve shown this photo to a few people and it’s interesting what people see.

I see a pilot who doesn’t take himself too seriously, making sure that nothing gets in the way of a good (by which I mean, safe) flight.

My friend sees an example of a shoddily prepared plane and a pilot having to perform embarrassing DIY maintenance just to get it off the ground.

Why do we see it so differently? Very simply because we each see what we expect to see.

I like Jetstar.  I’ve flown with them a few times and been impressed each time.  So I see the relaxed, down-to-earth attitude I expect to see.

My friend had flown with them once before, in Jetstar’s first couple of days as a fledgling airline experiencing more than its fair share of teething problems. So she sees the slip-shod performance of a second-rate airline that she expects to see.

Which is all very obvious but it does remind me of the conversation I’ve had with clients many times.

As an advertiser, you never start with a clean slate.  People always have a view of your brand.  And they interpret whatever you do based on that existing view.  Even if you’re a new brand people have a view of your category. And they interpret whatever you do based on their expectations of the category.

Which demonstrates what a difficult job being a Marketer really is.

Because those perspectives are so individual and people cling to them so tightly. No one likes to be wrong, so we look for what proves us right. Which makes it perfectly reasonable that a pilot cleaning a windscreen can be both a positive and negative reinforcement for the same brand.

And it also does a pretty good job of demonstrating how hard it is for marketers (and marketing) to change people’s perceptions.

[Via http://philiponeill.com]

Get Visible by Targeting Your Market

One of the ways for local businesses to keep new customers coming through the door is to make their marketing dollars count through targeting their audience.  For example, one of the solutions that TPG Marketing offers is a fitness campaign to help local businesses attract consumers that are image conscious.  They’ve created a campaign that targets consumers while they are working out at the gym.   These consumers are interested in products and services such as beauty, health, hair, teeth, and looking younger.

By displaying a local business advertisement in a busy fitness club near the business, they are able to filter their customer’s by location and interest.

Target marketing is fast becoming important in a world where many consumers are filtering out an advertiser’s message from information overload.    Staying visible and spending wisely is part of the way a business needs to operate in this economy.

[Via http://tpgmarketing.wordpress.com]

Interests of Chris - Since July 2008 - Top 10 Posts

I thought I would share with you the top 10 posts with the most hits since the launch of the blog back in Jul 2008.  So here they are below in order of most hits – many of which are in there thousands!!

1. New Tupac Album on the way?

2. Video Vixen – Book Finished!!

3. Topless – Dr Dre, T.I. and Nas

4. Trials of TQ: Independence – The Reality

5. Dos Santos moving to Spurs

6. Crooked I interview (part 2) – Death Row

7. Trials of TQ – Cash Money!!

8. Video Vixen – Karrine Steffans

9. Coffee Shop Brands – How do they compare

10. Death Row Records Sold!

[Via http://interestsofchris.wordpress.com]

Book your room through online marketing

In the hotel business it is well known that reserved rooms are preferred rooms and while the walk up business definitely helps the bottom line it is the pre determined revenue of the reserved rooms that hotels use to make their living. That means that getting as many rooms reserved as possible and tied down with credit card confirmations and that means marketing the hotel to get that extra business.

People are always traveling for various reasons and the only reason they do not choose your hotel over another hotel is because they have seen something on the other hotel and they have seen nothing in regards to yours. The key is to not just get the marketing machine cranked up and working in your favor but to identify the key areas where your marketing efforts, and dollars, will see the most return.

It used to be that one of the secret weapons of the more successful hotels was the use of travel agents. The hotels would invite travel agents to stay for free in their hotel to see what the hotel has to offer and in return the agents would use the hotels as part of package deals for vacationing travelers.

The hotels would give discounted rates to the travel agents and the agents would fill the rooms for the hotels months in advance. Today there are still traditional travel agents that are experts at filling hotels and keeping those relationships with hotels all over the world alive but the average traveler has moved away from using traditional travel agents and has moved to booking their vacations on the internet.

A smart hotel is going to hunt down the more successful internet travel agencies and work out package deals and discounts with those internet travel agencies to help book rooms in advance. Your exposure with one large internet travel agency is going to exceed the exposure you would get from any local traditional travel agent.

The internet has become the medium of choice for people looking to book vacations and even more popular than the internet travel agents are the internet discount travel sites that allow people to piece together their own vacations with discounts from various hotels, airlines, and car rental companies.

In order to find success with internet marketing you will need to make sure the information being offered travelers via these discount travel sites is accurate and that all of the processes these sites have in place to book rooms in your hotel are also correctly set up. Keep the channel of communication open with these websites and offer them excellent discounts as well.

Some of these sites try and get discounts out of your hotel by helping you fill rooms you cannot fill at full price and offering them at a negotiated discount with the traveler. Any prebooked room you can get is revenue you can count on and a prebooked room at a discount is always better than hoping that someone walks up and pays full price.

Reaching out to travelers through the internet is a full time job and working beyond the traditional travel sites will help get you more exposure. The larger search engine websites offer advertising spaces that are seen by millions of people a day and the rates are not so expensive for exposure like that. Get your hotel’s name and link on those major search engines to make sure you are maximizing your exposure.

The final piece to the internet marketing puzzle is making sure your website is clean, easy to use, updated, and helpful to any potential customer that tries to use it. People want as much luxury as possible out of a hotel for as little money as possible so make sure you create a website with a luxurious appearance that gives the impression that you have a hotel worth spending the money on.

Make your website easy to get information from and easy to book a room with and make certain that all room booking information is updated in real time from all of your room booking sources. You will have angry customers and bad referrals if you constantly have double bookings due to a lag in updating the website booking information. Create a desirable and functional website and people will use it to book rooms in your hotel and make you revenue.

[Via http://travelagencywebsites.wordpress.com]

Ah blogging, did I miss you too?

Ah blogging, that slightly-older-uncle in the ‘new media’ family.

You know what? I missed it, I missed it like crazy. I missed being a part of a conversation, I missed contributing, but more importantly I missed listening, reading and seeing other people’s opinions. Blogging, in my opinion, is one of the best things you can get into, even if you’re just a lurker for a while first.

Forrester Research did some amazing, well, research about percentages of people who create, engage, use, comment and lurk, it’s below (until they ask me to remove it)

I suppose it comes back to an issue of feeling like you’re part of a group, an immersion, so to speak, as Seth Godin would call it, a tribe. But it’s also worth considering that’s it more than just being a part of something. It’s is about being heard in that group. You’re not just a follower, you’re a contributor, even if your voice is small and only a few people hear it, at least it was heard.

Cutting off the blogging voice for a while, was an experience I don’t intend on repeating but one worth enduring.

[Via http://rowanw.wordpress.com]

more proud moments in Aussie advertising

This little gem from an Aussie brewery made me proud. Despite being voted one of the worst ads in 2009, I couldn’t get past loving the bad taste in this sense of humour. I haven’t tried the raspberry ale and can’t see this ad would have enticed me at all (I get their stream of thinking but it’s a bad joke for a premium beer), however as a piece of subversive art it’s gold! 

ps I think they got the pants sued off them for this one – don’t mess with Disney

[Via http://markcowell.wordpress.com]

Google and India Test the Limits of Liberty - WSJ

The rules of political speech on the Internet are usually pretty simple. In America, almost anything goes. In places like China, the censors call the shots. But in India — a boisterous democracy that’s riven by religious and ethnic tension — the game is far trickier, as Google is discovering.

In September, lawyers at Google Inc.’s New Delhi office got a tip from an Internet user about alarming content on the company’s social networking site, Orkut. People had posted offensive comments about the chief minister of India’s southern state of Andhra Pradesh, who had died just a few days earlier in a helicopter crash.

Google’s response: It removed not just the material but also the entire user group that contained it, a person familiar with the matter says. The Internet giant feared the comments could heighten tensions at a time when thousands of mourners of the popular politician were emptying into the street.

The incident shows the treacherous terrain Google must navigate as it expands in India, the world’s most-populous nation after China and a major growth market for Web searches, online advertising and mobile phone software. As Google broadens its reach, it must increasingly tweak the way it operates to suit new cultures. While authoritarian countries pose well-known challenges, Google is learning that even democracies such as India can be fraught with legal and cultural complications. Its experience here could serve as a precedent for other Web companies.

The nation of 1.2 billion is the world’s largest democracy and in principle affords free speech to its citizens. But the country has a volatile mix of religious, ethnic and caste politics and a history of mob violence. So, the government has the authority to curtail speech rights in certain cases. India’s Constitution encapsulates that gray zone: Free speech is subject to “reasonable restrictions” for such purposes as maintaining “public order, decency or morality.”

Authorities say Internet companies in India, including Yahoo Inc., Facebook Inc. and Twitter, are expected to help government enforce those standards online by removing objectionable material and, occasionally, helping to track down users. Under a law that took effect in October, corporate officials from any Web site that fails to comply with requests to take down material or block sites can face a fine and a jail sentence of up to seven years.

India is a secular state, but its people are predominantly Hindu, with a large Muslim minority and significant populations of other religions. Religious and caste tensions have periodically erupted in bloodletting in the 62 years since independence from Britain. In 1992, Hindu activists destroyed a mosque that they believed to be the birthplace of the Hindu deity Rama, setting off riots that killed more than 1,000. The memory remains raw in India.

Iqbal Chagla, a leading Indian attorney on civil liberties and public interest litigation, says fears of public rioting sparked by Web content — or incendiary content in any medium — are overstated. “Communal tensions become largely an excuse for denial of civil liberties and denial of freedom of speech,” Mr. Chagla said. “It’s a very thin line that’s being tread.”

Google’s policy, Ms. Wong says, is to review material flagged by Indian users of Orkut and other Web services it owns, such as YouTube. Google checks whether the content violates its global rules for users, which ban materials like child pornography and hate speech. The company pledges to abide by the laws of the countries it operates in. In India, that means making some content inaccessible from the local versions of its sites, such as orkut.co.in.—the default page users see when accessing Orkut from India. Google says it only blocks content brought to its attention by users or law enforcement authorities and only when it considers the request valid. The company cannot control what content is posted on third-party Web sites but controls what can be found through its search engine.

Google began ramping up in India in 2007 to capitalize on burgeoning Internet use. The country has about 52 million Web users, according to the International Telecommunication Union, making it one of the largest markets in the world. There is room for growth, since only about 5% of India’s population is yet online. Google declined to comment about the finances of its India operation.

Orkut, with 17.6 million users in India in October, is the country’s third-most visited Web site, according to comScore Inc. Google acknolweges that it was taken aback early on at how the site gave rise to explosive debates on topics like religion and politics. In mid-2007, the company began fielding complaints from police and users about profile pages with derogatory comments about figures living and dead. These have included B.R. Ambedkar, an architect of India’s Constitution who was an activist for lower-caste Indians, and Ms. Gandhi of the Congress Party.

[Via http://lanle.wordpress.com]

Referral Systems as a Means for Marketing

Referral systems can be beneficial in some industries but not all.  The best way to find out if it works for our industry is to simply test it (I stress frequently testing programs rather than ruling them out).  The best way to test this is to ask for 1 to 2 names from your customers who have recently purchased your product (they will be the most happy) and leave it at that.

[Via http://itsthefuturemarketing.wordpress.com]