Triune Designs Blog: Web Design, Development, & Marketing

This week I am writing about David Meerman Scott‘s newest book titled Word Wide Rave, which s being released on March 3, 2009.

If you have been following this blog for a while you will remember that I have referenced him in a couple of my posts. His book The New Rules of Marketing and PR is a must-read for anyone thinking about utilizing web marketing for their business.

David’s Own World Wide Rave
In his blog, David describes the concept of a world wide rave.

A World Wide Rave is when people around the world are talking about you, your company, and your products. Whether you’re located in San Francisco, Dubai, or Reykjavík, it’s when global communities eagerly link to your stuff on the Web. It’s when online buzz drives buyers to your virtual doorstep. And it’s when tons of fans visit your Web site and your blog because they genuinely want to be there.

A Little Help
David asked his readers to take a photo of his book’s poster with a backdrop representing our city (or country). You can read more about helping him.

My Hometown
I live in Charlotte, NC and wanted to do something creative to represent our city. I thought about some of the people down here in the Queen City (of the South) and came up with taking a picture with our fire department.

Charlotte has one of the best fire departments in the nation and its employees really strive to provide a high level of customer service. This great customer service is representative of the southern hospitality the South often brags about.

Charlotte Fire Department
I chose Charlotte’s Fire Station 8 (specifically) because, after a discussion with some of their firefighters in September, they started a blog. Station 8′s blog helps the public see some of the calls the firefighters handle and also gives them a glimpse of what goes on at a fire station. The station blog also aims at providing training resources for other firefighters.

With their blog and a new Twitter account, the firefighters of Station 8 are quickly becoming solid web marketers.

The Pics
Here are a few pictures of David’s poster in action in front of Station 8. The two firefighters pictured below are Adrian Cornette (FFII) and Jason Almond (FFII) on Engine 8 C-Shift. Charlotte Fire Department Station 8 is located at the intersection of The Plaza and Commonwealth Ave near downtown Charlotte, North Carolina.

Update (01/14/09) – Check out the guys from Station 8 on the World Wide Rave blog. Nice job Adrian and Jason!

How Do They Do That?
Have you ever written about a person, a product, or a company in your blog and then have them respond almost immediately in your comments?

One way these web-savvy people do this is by using Google Alerts. Google Alerts is one of the most valuable tools in your web marketing arsenal and it is also one of the easiest to use. You just sign up for the service and let Google do all of the work for you.

What Are Google Alerts?
According to Googe, alerts are

email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic.

You can use Alerts for

• monitoring a developing news story related to your industry
• keeping current on a competitor or industry
• reputation management for your company
• reputation management for yourself

How Do You Use Alerts?
Like I said before, using Google Alerts is very easy. You will first need to sign up for a Google account. Once you have it you can go to Google’s home page and look for My Account.

Next you want to find the Google Alerts link.

(You can also go straight to the Google Alerts page.)

You will now be on the main Google Alerts page. Simply enter the search term, criteria, frequency, and what email address you want to use. Once completed, you will begin receiving the alerts from Google as those search terms are found. Here is a little more information about each option:

Search Term – Enter your search term here. If you are using multiple words in your search I suggest using quotation marks around them. As an example I used the search term “web marketing” abominable snowman. This means I will receive alerts when Google finds information for “web marketing”, abominable, or snowman. I can simply move the quotation marks and it changes the alert completely. If I had used “web marketing abominable snowman” then I would only receive alerts when all four words are found. Using quotation marks is a simple concept, but they can prevent you from getting a lot of unnecessary emails.

Criteria – There are six options available for criteria: news, blogs, web, video groups, and comprehensive. Unless you are looking for something specific I recommend using comprehensive so that you get alerts for everything Google finds.

How Often (Frequency) – There are three options available for how often: as-it-happens, once a day, and once a week. This setting will depend on what you are searching for. I set up alerts for my name and my company. I receive them on an as-it-happens basis. However, in the scenario above, I would rather choose the once a day setting for “web marketing” abominable snowman since having that information is not as urgent.

Deliver To – You can choose from whatever email addresses you have set up with Google.

After clicking on create alert, you will be finished and you can now manage your alerts. While I was on the manage alerts list I went ahead and added another search: “web marketing” yeti. This way I have a pretty comprehensive list that allows me to see how well those snow monsters in the north are handling their web marketing.

2¢ – Your two cents
Do you use Google Alerts? Have you found it to be a valuable tool in your web marketing arsenal? Is there any other advice you would recommend when using Google Alerts? What other Google products do you use to enhance your web marketing? Let me know your thoughts in the comments. I would love to get your two cents.

A while ago I wrote a blog post that discussed a problem with Sonic Drive-In’s web marketing. I mentioned that Sonic Drive-In had some of the funniest commercials on TV, but they lacked a presence on YouTube. Sonic could have easily enhanced their web marketing by adding each of their commercials to YouTube. Basically, adding the videos is very little work that can have potentially huge returns.

In yet another case of “I really do believe a large corporation followed my blog’s advice (but probably not),” I recently found a YouTube channel made specifically for Sonic’s “2 Sonic Guys”. The YouTube channel shows two of the actors found in the TV commercials challenging amateurs to upload their own “sonic-esque” commercials. I am glad to see Sonic starting to utilize a great web marketing opportunity by embracing social media.

Sonic still has a long way to go before excelling at social media web marketing, though. For example, they still need to add all of their commercials to YouTube. Also, some of their newly-added commercials have been marked as private. Private? Really? Why would you mark your commercials, that are aimed at getting more exposure for your company, as private? I find that interesting.

2¢’s – Your Two Cents
Do you like Sonic’s commercials? What else could they be doing to enhance their web marketing presence? Have you added videos to YouTube to help enhance your company’s online presence? Do you ever look for funny or interesting commercials on video sharing websites such as YouTube? Let me know your thoughts in the comments. I would love to get your two cents.

Photo courtesy of wfyurasko on Flickr

I have a couple of recommendations for some good blog advice and web marketing reading for this week’s BB&P post. This week we are giving a shout-out to John’s (a.k.a. human3rror’s) blog over at ChurchCrunch. We also point out a good discussion on how you can use different criteria for Google’s AdWords to become a better PPC advertiser.

Want to be a good blogger?

Whether he has notoriety or not, John is one of the best bloggers you will find. (If you want a list of reasons why I believe this call me, email me, or ask in the comments.) Therefore, if John provides a list with best practices for creating an effective blog I would listen. That is the reason I am including his post on this week’s recommendations.

As you read his post, you should ask yourself the following questions.

• Does your blog have a voice?
• Is your (and your company’s) personality coming through the posts? Hint: if you have a blog that is Big-Blue-stiff then the answer is probably no (think IBM of the 80′s and early 90′s).
• If someone is reading your blog posts, can they immediately identify your business passions and obsessions?
• Are your posts well thought out and (mostly) grammatically correct (hint: avoid stream of consciousness writing)?
• Are you trying to create a successful blog? Honestly?

Read on for more his valuable good-blogging advice. The original article came from 43Folders.

Google Adwords – Gaining more precise control over your keywords

I usually do not advise most people to use Google Adwords. With that said, Google created a great program to try and increase traffic from search engine results for those that are willing to pay a little money. The PPC option has allowed businesses to target specific groups of people, thus making advertising slightly more effective. My advice; however, usually directs businesses to put their efforts into creating stronger organic search engine result first. I could go on, but this is not the point of my post today.

A forum topic I recently found provided advice on how to make Google Adwords even more effective: include negative keywords with your keyword matches. If you currently use Google AdWords or are thinking about it then I would recommend checking this out. You can also view Google’s AdWords support for more detailed information on this topic.

A quick example from Google’s AdWords support:

Say you bought the keyword “blue mercedes car” on broad match. Here’s how the different versions of the negative keyword “fast blue” would affect this ad.

1) -fast blue (Negative)
POSSIBLE SEARCHES:
blue mercedes car – WOULD SHOW
blue fast mercedes car – WOULD NOT SHOW
mercedes fast car – WOULD SHOW
car blue mercedes fast – WOULD NOT SHOW
fast blue – WOULD NOT SHOW
blue fast – WOULD NOT SHOW
fast blue mercedes car – WOULD NOT SHOW

Read more from the web marketing forum.
Read more from Google Adwords support.

Your two cents
What did you think about John’s post concerning good blogging? What would you add to the list of effective blogging techniques? Do you think your passion shines through in your blog posts? Do you ever use negative keywords during your Google searches? Do you use Google AdWords? Let me know in the comments below. I would love to hear your thoughts.

In one of next week’s blog posts, we are going to discuss how different social media suits different people. Come back next week to read more.

In honor of that upcoming post, I want to see what types of social media you use. Are you a hardcore blogger? Are you one of the cool kids hanging out in the Facebook community? Do you Twitter so much that you really do actually want to just tweet? Let us know in the poll below. And because it is the Christmas season, we are going to throw in an extra (gift) poll. Given all of the communities where you are a participant, what is your favorite social media medium?

I look forward to seeing your responses.

Where do you regularly participate?

Bonus Poll – What is your favorite social media medium?

Howdy to everyone out there in the TDI tribe (yes I am listening to Seth Godin’s book – review to come in another blog post).

NCIS & web marketing

A short while ago I wrote a blog article about how CBS and NCIS benefited from expanded marketing reach when they aired reruns on the USA Network. Today, I read a relevant article on MSN talking about how NCIS is indeed seeing an increase in viewership.

So, the first conclusion we can get from the MSN article is that my blog is now driving millions of people to CBS so they can watch NCIS – yes that is correct, we are sending millions of people to the show!

Okay, well probably not, but this article does reinforce my previous assertion that reach aids in marketing and exposure.

If you read the article, you will find that the MSN reporter is correct in many of his observations: yes, NCIS’ writing is good and yes, the humor makes the show very enjoyable. In fact the whole show is just good entertainment; however, the reporter overlooked how these millions of extra viewers are now finding the show to increase its numbers. As I mentioned above, one reason is reach.

In fact, I know of one person (me of course) that found NCIS through the extra marketing reach USA provided the show. How many others are like me? What do you do to help improve your marketing reach? Could you be doing more?

Photo courtesy of ~Merete

Years ago, Photoshop’s ease of use in editing software led to a huge explosion of advertising parodies. Marketers would release a new advertising image and then someone would slightly change the image to create something funny. The following are a couple of examples I quickly found on Flickr.

Windows Vista Product Parody

iPhone Commercial Parody

The YouTube Generation

Today, YouTube (along with the availability of video editing software) is aiding in a similar explosion of parodic items: videos. A while back, when I was doing some research for my Sonic Drive-In article I found that the number of parodic videos seemed to outnumber the originals by at least 2-to-1. That is huge! Think about how many more videos are now available on YouTube showing the Sonic brand in one form or another. Those videos provide additional marketing benefits companies just cannot buy.

A Mac Parody

In sticking with the computer theme from the images above, here is a video parodying the current set of Mac commercials.

From a marketing standpoint, parodies are great. People create videos that others will watch that are also based on branding you originally created. When I see these parodies I almost always think of the original commercial, and I believe I am not the only one who does this.

So, what is the lesson to take away from this? Create marketing materials that people find interesting. Some will then create parodies of your marketing material. This spreads the word about your company even further. The end result is that the parodies end up aiding your branding and marketing efforts.

Note: No computers or operating systems were harmed in the making of this blog post.

The photos are courtesy of re-ality and P/\UL.