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Better Now?

Boy is it ever frustrating to have a medical condition to deal with. For me it is a Thyroid situation that is mostly under control – at least for the moment. Back in April I parted ways with Web Teks to pursue opening IMS – a company focused on strategies for internet marketing. At first things went very smoothly.  I put together various supporting web sites, updated social media venues, and re-established business banking accounts that had been dormant for a long time. Next I prepared to update my Web Strategies Podcast programming when I started to lose steam.

It’s a little hard to explain if you don’t have some experience with Thyroid conditions – but what started to diminish uncontrollably was my personal energy level. So I pretty much lost the month of May 2009.  Keep in mind that it was not drive, desire, or intent that faded – just the ability to execute. I know I was slow to respond to some long time friends and colleagues, but I honestly could not focus on anything but my immediate health situation.

Late last year I had pre-paid for a vacation to Bermuda scheduled for the first week of June – and it was a close call for me not to cancel. Also scheduled before my May downtime was my participation at the Online Marketing Summit in Atlanta during the second week in June.

As it worked out I found myself gaining back my energy and took both trips.  Although I find myself looking back at time lost, it is time to get back at it.. Today I am working on posting meaningful materials from OMS and  I hope you will find some benefit from the experiences I brought back from the Online Marketing Summit in Atlanta.

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Google is not the problem

Now when people ask me what I do I give them the short answer; Internet Marketing Strategy. What is the Internet Marketing thing all about? Well it’s not limited to Google, although that is a great place to start. There are Search Engine Fundamentals that should be applied to your website before any comprehensive Internet marketing Strategy can be formed.  Google or “Search Engine friendly” web sites are simply one of many tactics available to you.
Other tactics include:

• Social Media marketing
  • Social networks like Twitter and Facebook are not just personal tools to communicate with friends. Used correctly they can be a great resource for lead acquisition and brand loyalty.
• Mobile and Local Search
  • One of the biggest missed opportunities in internet marketing is failing to have complete and correct information about your business available to mobile phone users and  in Local listings on search engines and online yellow pages.
• Viral Marketing
  • This can cover a lot of individual examples, but essentially Viral Marketing happens anytime you create something that causes the recipient or viewer to pass the message to someone else. Probably the best example is a “send to a friend” link in an email or webpage.
• Reputation Management
  • Finding negative comments about your business online and responding positively is critical for large and small businesses alike.
• email Marketing
  • It’s not just about sending a blanket email blast. Creating content specific to each email campaign and quantifying the results will show you how much return on investment you are making… Or not making as the case might be.
• Search Advertising
  • Pay-Per-Click advertising has a whole process to learn or outsource. How much should you pay – how do you measure return, how do you find the right search terms, how do you write the ad… the list goes on and on.
• Analytics
  • Constantly refining the content of your site to both be as relevant as possible and to increase organic ranking in the search engines.
• Server Based
  • And then there are server based tweaks like a 301 redirect. If someone looks for a page on your website they should see the same thing with and without the “www” in the URL. Similarly if there are back links to your web site without the WWW the search engines may see that as a back link to a different website.

Whole books are written on each of these topics… well except the last item about redirects. So in the venue of this blog it is just the briefest hint at what can be done to help your customers find and do business with you.

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Disgsby the Wonder Dog

Here it is the night before my guest appearance on the HearSay with Cathy Lewis program and it’s not exactly cramming – but I am making sure all my social media accounts have been at least logged into.

In the process I ran across a cool little social network aggregating widget called Digsby.

From their own description; Digsby is a multiprotocol IM client that lets you chat with all your friends on AIM, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, Google Talk, and Jabber with one simple to manage buddy list. It is also an email notification tool that alerts you of new email. And the triple play is that Digsby is simultaneously a social networking tool that alerts you of events like new messages and gives you a live Newsfeed of what your friends are up to.
I downloaded and set up the application on my home computer, and configured it to show my three main email accounts, Facebook, Twitter,MySpace,and LinkedIn accounts in about 15 minutes – but I know where to look for all my username and password codes so it may take you a little while longer than that. Now i can see when i get a new email, someone at work IM’s me, I get a friends status change – it happens from one concise application. Very cool.
Here are my various social network profiles being tracked in Digsby :

Facebook – from http://www.facebook.com/facebook sign up for an account and search for Tom Anthony

Twitter – http://twitter.com/tomanthony_com

MySpace – http://www.myspace.com/tomanthonydotcom

LinkedIn – http://www.linkedin.com/in/tomanthonydotcom

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Podcast review: Diggnation: I just don’t Digg it

I posted this review in iTunes

Sounds like a group of goofy high school girls talking mostly about themselves. Oops – the hosts are named Alex and Kevin. I guess I just don’t Digg it. Diggnation is billed as a weekly tech/web culture show based on the top news stories from digg.com – a (web 2.0) social bookmarking site. That would be great if it were true! I like the digg.com website, however, and in my best Simon Cowellvoice, hate, hate, hate the Diggnation podcast presentation. Alex and Kevin; How about actually talking about digg.com? Reader – my best advice: Skip it. Please!