for some of the technology they have already developed.

Twitter’s Tweet Button comes with some additional options: as well as multiple formatting choices, it also allows website owners who install the button to suggest Twitter accounts to follow for people who use the button on their site. Although the design of the button is different, it works in the same way as TweetMeme in that it allows users to easily share stories on Twitter and provides a counter for the number of times each article or page has been shared. The release of this new button is the next step in Twitter’s expansion and filling the gaps in its core service offerings.

Marketing Takeaway

For marketers who create content online, Twitter provides one major reason to switch to the new Tweet Button from TweetMeme’s existing button: suggested followers. A common goal of many businesses on Twitter is to increase followers and reach. By installing the new button, businesses can then add their corporate Twitter account(s), which will be recommended when new site visitors use the Tweet Button. As a marketer, switching to the new Tweet Button now makes sense to take advantage of this current benefit as well as future benefits that will likely come from Twitter as it improves its API.

Do you plan to switch to the new Tweet Button for your website?

Read more: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/6396/Goodbye-TweetMeme-Twitter-Launches-Its-Own-Retweet-Button.aspx?source=Blog_Email_[Goodbye+TweetMeme%3a+T]#ixzz0wPzjM845



The quantity of information on the Web can often seem overwhelming. The emails, feeds, and social comments just keep coming – and they just won’t stop. Sometimes, particularly in the summer months, it’s often helpful to head to the pool, pour yourself a nice cold drink and enjoy a good and meaningful book. But wait, you’re a Web professional! You are compelling to stay connected at all times, right? Website Magazine has selected seven recently released industry-related books for you to consider reviewing this summer as you lounge by the pool. From copy writing and persuasion to entrepreneurship and marketing, Website Magazine Summer Reading List for Web Workers is one not to miss.

Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose
Zappos.com CEO Tony Hsieh discusses his experiences in entrepreneurship, the importance of customer service and taking business risks. While the book has been accused of being filled with a bit too much hype, others argue that it’s a powerful and inspirational read.

The Yahoo! Style Guide: The Ultimate Sourcebook for Writing, Editing, and Creating Content for the Digital World
Yahoo!’s recently released style guide provides a detailed reference to essential Web style writing elements. Ideal for writers, editors, bloggers, and marketers, many of the most essential topics are covered including the basics of grammar and punctuation and the guide even manages to offer up several ways for improving writing.

The Power of Pull: How Small Moves, Smartly Made, Can Set Big Things in Motion
A provocative and insightful look at the power of today’s knowledge flow. If you want to meet the challenges of working and living in the 21st century, this book should be your guide as it provides a meaningful framework and context to approach the future for anyone interested in surviving and enjoying it.

Gamestorming: A Playbook for Innovators, Rulebreakers, and Changemakers
Provides a toolkit for “inventors, explorers, and change agents” who want to use design thinking to navigate successfully in complex and uncertain knowledge and information spaces. Filled with techniques to engage your team and help everyone collaborate effectively.

Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age
Reveals how technology is changing people from consumers to collaborators. Author Clay Shirky, who teaches at the Interactive Telecommunications Program at NYU, forecasts the changes we will enjoy as new digital tech puts our untapped resources of talent and goodwill to use.

The Referral Engine: Teaching Your Business to Market Itself
Master marketer John Jantsch outlines the necessary steps to achieving marketing success without a huge budget. Discover how to get others to start talking about you company and driving new business to you door. Plenty of real-life examples make this a must-have for your personal marketing library.

Fascinate: Your 7 Triggers to Persuasion and Captivation
Lust, power, mystique and trust are just some of the triggers that can help marketers improve relationships with customers and colleagues. Author Sally Hogshead expertly delves into the notion of fascination, providing practical examples along the way.

Posted Jul 16 2010, 02:45 PM by Peter A. Prestipino

Driving awareness, providing entertainment and generating profit

Content: It’s what we consume — sometimes intentionally, other times subliminally. But we are inundated with it every minute in today’s information economy.

But what is “content”? On today’s fast-paced Web, content arrives in many forms and through many channels — audio, video, research papers, images, product descriptions and consumer reviews — it’s all content. And, it’s increasingly taking center stage.

There is more content available on the Web than ever before, and it’s being delivered to consumers at blinding speeds. To make your content stand out in a saturated market (and ensure that it ultimately influences sales and conversions), you will need to rethink content as an asset — then retool for the new content experience. Of course, this might require reconfiguring some aspects of your business and marketing plans but you will find that content is the best means to accomplish any number of critical tasks, from sales to support.

You will quickly discover that meaningful results come not from simply pumping out an endless stream of content but by producing content that entertains or educates (or both at the same time). In today’s fast-paced, big-profit world, consumers want opinions, analysis and techniques. They want insights and answers, and they will look to you or your competitors for that information.

Consumers increasingly want to feel connected. And the single best way to accomplish that is to create not just content but content that offers a complete and immersive experience. If, like me, you groan at every mention of “produce quality content”, you will want to keep reading. What follows are practical, actionable ways to create content that engages, entertains and educates, and brings consumer awareness to your business and its brand for the purpose of profiting.

Dominate Daily
The challenges are many for content developers. While content remains king, today the king has many faces. No longer are you as a Web marketer or Internet professional forced to create content in one way, attracting one type of audience in the process, at one point in time in the users’ buying cycle. Today, ideas can be expressed in unique, innovative and immersive ways; brands can be built through entertaining or educating an audience; and products can be sold — because the vendor has taken time to consider the audience’s preferred method of content consumption.

Source: Website Magazine-June

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Jun 18, 2010 -

As a speaker and attendee at the Federated Media Conversational Marketing Summit, I had the opportunity to learn more about innovative social platforms like Foursquare and StickyBits, as well as to hear how companies are using new technologies like these to engage with their customers.

The theme was “marketing in real time,” and while many of the marketers who spoke came from larger companies, the insights they shared may be valid for all businesses.  Customers are spending more time with digital media than traditional media these days, and they have increasing expectations for real-time communication with brands.  As Federated Media’s CEO John Battelle said at the start of the Summit, we are in the midst of a rapid shift to real time, local, and mobile marketing.  Regardless of size, successful brands will be those that embrace this shift and engage with their customers.

Part of the challenge, of course, is to understand the technology trends and how they may affect your business.  So I want to share with you some key trends discussed at the Summit, along with links to articles that can offer additional insights.

1.  Mobile marketing.  With the proliferation of smartphones and other mobile devices, customers are finding and exchanging information in more channels than before.  For business owners, this can mean a range of considerations, from, at a minimum, taking a look at how you can optimize your website for mobile, to how to use existing mobile messaging platforms or develop your own application.

2.  Location-based marketing.  With the rise in mobile marketing, there is also an increase in demand for recognition based on location.  Through technology, customers can share where they shop, eat, and other activities – and brands can reward their loyalty.  It’s a trend that seems to even the playing field some, offering smaller, local businesses like restaurants and retail stores the opportunity to recognize regular customers and offer special promotions.  “How to Make Your Small Business Geolocation-Ready” offers a helpful overview.

3.  Social marketing.  While not new, this is still very much an evolving trend, moving from an expectation of engagement to one of recognition, as well.  Some larger brands at the Summit discussed creating and customizing content according to customer geography and interests.  This is likely more than what smaller businesses can achieve, however, there are other ways to reward customers, such as through tools like Foursquare.  (Find more information in “Foursquare for Business:  Is There a Real Opportunity?”)

4.  Connecting online with offline.   While some sites connect social networking with your physical location, Stickybits connects social networking to physical objects.  Using a smartphone scanner, the Stickybits app, and unique barcodes that you can download and print, you can attach content to an object that the next person who then scans the barcode can see.

While these new technologies may seem very interesting, they may not all be appropriate for your business.  I encourage you to evaluate them against your marketing goals and resources before jumping in.  If you do start using them – or already are – please share your experiences with me at maryann @ openforum.com.  I’m sure other OPEN Forum readers would like to hear your story.

Mary Ann Reilly

Senior Vice President, OPEN Partnerships & New Bus

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There was a short discussion on my Private Forum the other day about the importance of having a professionally designed logo on an eCommerce website. I’ve come across this issue many times, in fact I teach about it in my Workshops.

Is it important to have a professional logo on your site? Yes, absolutely. Why is it important?

It gives the impression that you are a larger, more professional company.

A logo is usually placed in the top left corner of a web site’s header. That’s the top left corner of the page. The header, which is usually a strip across the top of a web site that identifies what the web site does, is extremely important for establishing two things: Professionalism and legitimacy.

Have you ever been shopping online and come across a site that simply has it’s name in text in the top left corner? Of course you have. Think about it. How professional does that look to you? Does it make you feel like the company is large, stable, and trustworthy? Or does it look like a cheap, quickly thrown together site owned by an individual?

For most people, sseeing the site name in text at the top left of a web site simply leaves the impression that the business is small and unprofessional. That’s not good.

We know that first impressions are important, right? Well, in English speaking countries (and many others, for that matter) we read from left to right, top to bottom. So, we start reading web sites at the top left corner. That top left corner is the very first impression your site page makes on people. It needs to be a good one.

We have about 6 seconds to capture the short attention span that belongs to the Internet Shopper. Anything that gets in the way of making a good impression can instantly lose that short attention span and cost you potential sales.

A well-designed logo at the top left of your web pages goes a very long way toward increasing your sales conversion. While your site visitors won’t dwell on the logo, they WILL see it, and it will leave a lasting subliminal impression.

If you’re a graphic artist, go ahead and design your own logo. If not, find a graphic artist to do it for you. Do NOT use one of those free logo design web sites where you click a few clicks and create your own. A badly designed logo can actually do more harm to a visitors first impression of you than no logo at all.

The best way to get a very well designed logo for your business is to go to a site like ELance.com, where you can actually have a real graphic artist design and create a good logo for a fraction of what it costs to have it done by a professional design company.

That little space at the top left corner of your web site may seem small and unimportant, but it packs a lot of punch when it comes to leaving a good, strong, lasting impression of your business on your site visitor. That, in turn, goes a long way toward increasing your sales conversion.

By: Chris Malta
CEO, WorldwideBrands.com

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When you are searching for an eCommerce Consultant, you should expect the one you choose to be able to take you from your current level of understanding and give you the tools to become an experienced and successful ecommerce entrepreneur.

In other words, if you are a beginner, your eCommerce Consultant should be able to train you in the basics of setting up online commerce sites, with an understanding of the fundamentals such as ecommerce strategy, and developing a sound business plan and model. Since launching a new e-business and building it from the ground up can be an overwhelming task, your consultant should be able to offer a step-by-step guide employing best practices to start and maintain your online business. Consultants must have expertise in technological requirements, business practices, and understanding trends in eCommerce going forward. They will assist you in defining your business goals and strategizing the best way to get started toward meeting them. Defining your target market and developing strategies to reach it, using the right SEO, technical, and creative approach are essential.

If you already have some expertise in the ecommerce marketplace, and an online presence, your consultant will help you to maximize your bottom line through doing what you do even better. This will be achieved through analyzing your business and its potential. Taking a hard look at current practices and outlining strengths and weaknesses so that proper adjustments may be made is crucial. This analysis includes an evaluation of your site from the user’s point of view. Important elements include its look and feel, ease of navigation, your calls to action throughout the site, and the strength of the content. From there, formulating the right SEO strategies to raise your profile and increase market share will bring more traffic to your site, while implementing better conversion practices will increase sales.

Your eCommerce Consultant will also evaluate your sites performance, including your security measures, your cart and checkout process, and technical issues like the speed at which your site downloads. They will help you with advanced plr internet marketing strategies like developing high-conversion landing pages and the use of paid and organic search engine advertising methods. The goal is to give you practical and measurable steps that will increase your bottom line.

A good eCommerce Consultant will assist you in getting your new business off the launch pad and maximizing the potential of your existing business.