Hope you guys are having a great day. We are done carving pumpkins and now its time to put some of our halloween decorations out. I didn’t come from a culture where they celebrated Halloween but the more and more I came across it the more I started enjoying it. I love the fact that its a holiday when you can actually scare people. That has to be one of the most exciting holidays, right? Exactly! So go ahead and have fun with your friends and families, get them all spooked up and we will catch you guys on Monday. Until then have fun and a very Happy Halloween!

I am an active StumbleUpon user and for a year or so since I have been using it I’ve never left a negative review. Yes I have thumbed down content that I usually don’t like but I tend to pass on leaving negative review. Last night was a different story though. As I was stumbling my way looking for whats around I came across a site where there was nothing but a page that was directly promoting a product. I don’t mind advertisement but when you are using social web or social media it has to be integrated with something and not just thrown at someone like the traditional media such as TVs and radios do.

For example, if we got an offer to feature a product here at MarketingHackz, you can be assured we wouldn’t just say ” Hey, go ahead and buy it or use it.” We would add something to it, may be point out the benefits and some of the negative aspects of that product. And if it was our own product we would certainly promote it on social media but we would tie it to something that would make it more easily taken by our readers. Anyway, just a quick rant to let you all know that if you are using social media try not to promote your products directly, use it in a context. Yesterday while I was stumbling this is exactly what hapepened. I was stumbling my way looking for some stuff that would interest me and then the ad came up which was like watching TV. It sort of felt like a TV commercial right in the midle of my favorite show. Social web isn’t about that and this is how social media is being manipulated. Don’t get me wrong, I use social media to promote content and may be products but the right way to is by tying it to a context not simply throwing it at someone.

Here is my first negative review that I happened to leave on StumbleUpon. Once again, I am usually not keen on writing negative reviews but this one really pinched my nerves,

Seriously i dont need to see a product page on SU. Its a diff story if they were integrated in an article and were being promoted but hate to see product marketing directly. My opinion when it comes to social web marketing is to use it as a “integrate marketing” rather than “interrupt marketing.” This form of promotion makes it watching commercial on TV.

If you would like to join me on StumbleUpon please click here to friend me.

If you are not a Mac user chances are you are using a Dell computer. May be not, but its a well known fact that dell is one of the most widely used brands of computers, at least in the US. Today I wanted to feature a company that has tapped into the social web and my first choice of course was Dell. Dell has to be one of the few companies that has tapped into the social media marketing. It doesn’t just touch the social web but they breath marketing into it. So lets see how Dell is using the social web and Web 2.0 to market their product and create an evern stronger presence than what it already has.

1. Direct2Dell, a blog about Dell products, services and customers is a perfect example of social media marketing. Dell uses this blog to keep their customers informed and also receive feedbacks from their customers. This particular blog generates about 3.5 million pageviews per month. Besides this, Dell also hosts hundreds of team/departmental blogs in many different languages.
2. Dell uses Twitter like no one else. Dell has multiple accounts on Twitter which it uses to tap into the active Twitter market. Dell uses Twitter to announce offers and news on their Dell and Alienware products. Here is a list of Dell Twitter Accounts.
3. DellIdeaStorm is another platform where Dell keeps in touch with its user base directly. This site encourages customers and others to share their ideas. Each idea is voted up and down by the community. This allows Dell to stay ahead of competition by directly staying in touch with their community and potential customers. It also allows users and others to share their point of view and ideas bringing them closer to Dell. A win win situation for both parties.
4. SecondLife is one of the most popular game where users create their own avatars and live a life the way they want through their avatars. Many businesses have used this as a platform to promote their businesses and products. Dell has created their own island within SecondLife known as the “Dell Island.” Dell already has a strong presence in the real world and with their marketing in the virtual world they tap into another marktet.

As you can see Social Web is definitely something that needs to be touched in terms of marketing. Dell is a prime example that shows social media marketing is of as much importance as the traditional marketing. Hope dells active participation in social media gives you some idea on how social media can leverage your marketing efforts.

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Hey!  I just wanted to thank you for having patience over the last couple hours.  We were busy upgrading our servers – which isn’t necessarily fun…  But it’s all done now :0)

In the next couple weeks, we are going to be doing a lot more video on the site – video tutorials, mini-podcasts, etc.  And if you think a real podcast would be cool, let us know!  Marketing doesn’t really lend itself to revision3 style podcasts, but if you want us to try I am down…

But anyway, thanks again!

JD

As the economy pushes more businesses to pull back on their conventional marketing budgets and put some of it into Internet marketing, some are wondering where to spend their money.  The two major categories of Internet marketing making a splash today (and into tomorrow) are search engine optimization and social media marketing.

The question is” “Which is better?”

The answer is: “Usually both.”

Usually.

Just about any business that has a presence on the Internet could use search engine optimization to drive relevant traffic to their site.  Unlike search engine PPC marketing, SEO is less transparent and the results cannot be guaranteed.  Still, not getting optimization can be disastrous as the search engines are where people go when they want information.  Specifically, the organic results are where people click – 75% of searchers do not click on the sponsored results.

Most businesses can use social media marketing, but it’s even less transparent than SEO.  The results of a successful SMM campaign may take days, weeks, or even months to become visible.  On the other hand, sometimes the results are instantaneous and dramatic.

With SMM, the real benefits are traffic and branding.  Because people are often not currently in the market for whatever service or product it is that the business offers, the conversion ratios are normally low at first.  The key is how SMM works in the long term.  Even though the traffic spikes can be unbelievable, it often does not translate into direct sales immediately.

Don’t let that dissuade you, though.  In the long term, a proper batch of social media marketing campaigns can take an Internet business to the next level.  Showing your brand and your products to tens of thousands of people who normally would not have known you can have huge benefits now and in the future.

With all of that said, the question remains the same.  Which?  The REAL answer is that it depends on your situation.  For example, a website selling used cars in New Hampshire or Dallas cosmetic dentists will receive less benefit from world-wide social media marketing, while a company selling a less-known product like walkin bathtubs may get more out of SMM than SEO.  Of course, those who can rank organically in search engines AND have a successful SMM campaign can have the best of both world.

A company like Soccer Shop can optimize and still have great success with a viral marketing campaign.

For most businesses, a good combination of the two is wise.

* * *

Read more about Internet Marketing on this blog.

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Social Media marketing differs from traditional marketing in many ways. One of the key difference between social media marketing and traditional marketing is the fact that to market anything on social media you have to have an active presence within that community. Whether you are trying to promote an article on a blog or a product through social media site, an active presence is without a doubt key to your marketing effort. Read the rest of this entry

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As we said yesterday, there are a lot of people around the web who haven’t the slightest idea what Internet marketing is…  It’s not that these people are misinformed or that they don’t care, the problem is Internet marketing is (relatively) new and people don’t have time for it.

That’s something I can understand, though.  If a geologist makes it his life’s work to study all things geology – he doesn’t really care how Internet marketing works.  But if he has a blog where he likes to publish his findings, he’s more apt to give a damn!

So that’s the basis for these two videos.  It’s a quick jaunt down the marketing trail.  The first video, we talked about the big three aspects in Internet marketing.  This video describes the outcomes of SEO, PPC and Social Media marketing – and how they are different!

 

 Internet Marketing Awareness Demo: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Quite a lot of the time, we take it for granted that all of you know what we’re talking about when we reference Internet marketing and the things that go into it.  The problem is, a lot of offline people and college students don’t have a clue.

So one of the things I did over the weekend was record a powerpoint/screencast describing Internet marketing in better detail.  It talks about the big three, search engine optimization, pay per click, and social media marketing.

It was actually done for a college class that I was asked to speak in, but wasn’t able to attend.  So I talked through some of my marketing thoughts in a two part video session…

I’ll post the second half tomorrow!  It’s a session talking through parts on the Internet – places that you can see Internet marketing at work..

 

 Internet Marketing Awareness - Powerpoint [10:23m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Although both social media and other forms of marketing might sound similar there is a huge difference, the difference as you can see from the title itself is interruptive marketing Vs. participation marketing. Traditional marketing such as TV and radio force advertisement on us. For example, you are watching your favorite show and here comes Mr.Clean ad right when the most interesting part of the show is coming along. You either ignore the ad, enjoy it or walk away. Whether you watch the ad, change the channel or walk away is simply because you are forced to that ad in one way or the other. In simple terms you are interrupted from what you were doing.

Social media marketing on the other hand doesn’t work like the traditional marketing. There is no interruption involved. You either participate and market your product, service or content or you just let it go. You can’t just go ahead and promote your products like the traditional marketing. Social media marketing requires an element of being social with that particular social media platform community. Like I talked about in my earlier post, if you want to promote your product through Amazon through reviews, its easy to do. But you can’t just go ahead and leave links to your products or website. You have to participate and be a part of that particular community and promote your services without any interruption.

Social media is about being social and social media marketing is all about marketing with participation.

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Hey guys, hope you are having a good day. We have been getting quite a few emails asking about ways to leverage marketing through social media and other form of internet marketing. We agree that we haven’t been featuring a lot of online marketing tactics but the blog is still young and we wanted to cover more traditional topics first. Anyways, I just wanted to quick let you guys know that I will be covering social media topics quite frequently. Ways you can use social media to not only promote your content but your products and services as well while still being a valuable part of the community.The posts might be short and to the point but we assure you that you will find some good tips on online marketing.

Thanks to all the readers who sent us emails regarding this. We needed some boost