Namechk.com instantly shows you if your desired or branded username was available
at the majority of the top social networking websites.

That's right -- by simply typing your username into the “chk” search box, it will query all the social sites listed
on the page and display whether the username
is taken or available.

And, they will do it for free!

You can promote your brand consistently by registering a username that is still available on the majority of the most popular sites. Find the best username with namechk.com.

I got all mine - check yours out today!

Best

Denice MacDonald

Great post by Hubspot on a few dozen SEO blogs everyone should read or minimally
have in your arsenal. 

In lieu of lifting the entire post, you can get the entire listing here.

Read more about HubSpot.

Best,

Denice MacDonald

Website Magazine has provided a superb look at several comparison shopping websites. I love Website Magazine and applaud them for their latest article on the subject. There are several progams for merchants and B2B and B2C consumers will love the ability to browse lots of products.

Here are the top one's as cited in their magazine this month:

TheFind
With nearly 8 million unique monthly visitors in July, TheFind is the fastest-growing site in the comparison shopping space. The company, which has exhibited 175-percent growth in the past year, claims that merchants submitting their products to the site saw between 2.3 and 2.7 average visits per visitor, compared to a 1.9 average from their closest competitor. TheFind is free for merchants to submit product listings, with an additional service called UpFront that has a $299 value but is being offered for a free trial.

NexTag
NexTag saw more than 15 million unique visitors in July, making it one of the most sought-out comparison shopping sites on the Web. NexTag charges CPC fees to merchants, sorting their fees by product category, but to list items is free. NexTag routinely gets criticized for its simple design, but it hasn’t managed to keep consumers from flocking to the site looking for bargains.

BizRate
BizRate is one of several comparison shopping sites owned and managed by online shopping network Shopzilla http://www.shopzilla.com but attracts more than 13 million unique monthly visitors on its own accord. Merchants sign up through Shopzilla Business Services, and will pay CPC fees which are initially taken out of a $50 fully refundable deposit.

Become.com
A relative newcomer to the comparison shopping field, Become.com had about 3.5 million unique monthly visitors in July and continues to grow. The site recently added a mobile shopping component that contains editorial reviews of each participating merchant’s mobile compliance, a valuable tool for retailers already on board with the mobile commerce movement. The Merchant Account Center provides information on how to sign up, including a rate card for itemized CPC fees for participating retailers.

Pronto.com
Pronto’s traffic numbers in July were close to 8 million unique monthly visitors, and the site prides itself on its social shopping focus. Merchants who enroll in the program will pay a CPC fee on leads sent to their sites from Pronto, which also includes an exclusive partnership with search engine Ask.com and a local search deal with Citysearch.

Best

Denice MacDonald

About a year ago, I did a blog on Wordle -- a java applet that generates a word cloud – a visual depiction of words that appear from a site's source text.  I thought it would be interesting to do a follow-up to see how my blog is transitioning based on keywords - the results are very interesting.

MacDonald Consulting has morphed into to a social media blog with concentration on strategic content strategy.

Here is the original content from that earlier blog - along with the original Word Cloud followed by the Word Cloud created today.

.     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .

To get Wordle to work, go to their site and enter a URL with an RSS feed. The result is an amazing visual montage based on prominent or frequently used words. 

The tool offers a variety of effects and fonts which you can randomize or colorize simply by clicking a button.  Moreover, Wordle lets you print out the text montage or visualizations, save them as PDF or to a public gallery for multiple use. 

Creative Commons Requirements

If you use a screen-capture, PDF, or other image representation of a Wordle on this site, you must attribute the image to http://www.wordle.net/.

MacDonald Consulting Services "Wordle" Circa August, 2009

MacDonald Consulting Services "Wordle" Circa August, 2010

Best

Denice MacDonald

Thanks to my colleague James Davidson, Vice President, Digital & Community Strategy at 7Summits, here is a great blog on social media and e-mail.

I find it interesting that most organizations don’t realize that e-mail marketing is the original ‘backbone’ of social interaction and should always be part of the social mix.  Simply adding some ‘integrated’ content will aid in elevating your brand – not to mention ROI for your social campaigns. 

Take a peek:19 Ways to Connect Social Media & Email Marketing Together by Infusionsoft

A word about Infusionsoft 

Infusionsoft is revolutionizing the way small businesses grow. At Infusionsoft, we're all about liberating and empowering entrepreneurs so they can enjoy doing business, wow their customers and better serve their families and communities.

About 7Summits

7Summits is a Social Business Agency focused on helping clients apply social media to drive measurable business value. Whether you're a B2C or B2B business, 7Summits will help create your Social Business Strategy & Plan and then help you execute and measure the results being delivered  

Best

Denice MacDonald 

Online marketing continues to evolve while traditional media is waning. The result is that many organizations are embracing social media as an effective way to engage and collaborate with consumers through social communities.  

LISTEN -- ENGAGE -- INFLUENCE 

Unlike traditional marketing, social media allows a two-way communication with consumers. People are talking about brands all the time. Companies need to evaluate if they are ready to start active listening and engaging in conversations with their customers and prospects with an effective strategy that will build personalized, lasting and meaningful connections. 

This connection will prompt viral exchanges, call to action scenarios and brand lift for a number of organizations that are stuck in traditional strategies that are no longer effective. 

There are a number of excellent resources that will aid organizations that are ready to embrace social marketing. Here are a few great resources to get started:  

Online Retailers Rank SEO and Social Media as Top Marketing Tool by CIO (Social networking, improved site content and utilising analytics are the top areas CIOs need to be looking at in the online retail space)

Mashable: The Social Media Guide (Learn the various components of social media - realizing that social interaction is 1 to many, not just 1 to 1)

110 Ways Retailers are Using Social Media Marketing (Leverage this detailed listing of organizations that are doing it right the first time)

Internet Retailer: Growing Importance of Social Media (Don't underestimate the growth potential - Internet Retailer has it all fared out for management disbelievers)

Best

Denice MacDonald

[Image Courtesy of http://www.valleyprblog.com]

Attracting Facebook fans is easy. Keeping them, engaging them and mobilizing them will present more of a challenge. Begin by maximizing Facebook’s potential with a conversation strategy.   

Down to the basics

The reality is that few people on Facebook are looking to fan a brand. That is, unless they truly love a certain brand, they are unlikely to hit the ‘become a fan’ button. Moreover, almost ninety percent of fans never go to a brand’s fan page. They engage via their news feed.  

Less window dressing – more conversation

The most obvious conclusion is that you will want to put less time in window dressing and more into a cohesive and targeted conversation strategy. Only when your conversation strategy is solid will integrated advertising make sense. 

Take to heart what Facebook recommends everyone do on a monthly basis

Facebook provides solid recommendations to make your conversation strategy by telling you to gather your marketing team and map out product, advertising and promotion plans for the month. Set realistic priorities and determine a compatible conversation strategy that avoids excess promotion and creates a balance of the following:   

1.     Questions that will stimulate reaction, feedback and even criticism 

2.     A mix of content (video, images, entertainment) that will be both useful and welcome

3.     Provide non-intrusive offers or incentives that can be engaging, shared and tracked 

Once you have run the above, closely scrutinize metrics and recalibrate where necessary. Start small – redefining and reframing the conversation as you go. 

It’s only a matter of time before everyone you want to connect with is on Facebook. You may want to get better at finding them, attracting them and engaging with them.  

Resources 

Join the Social Media Conversation by Web Trends

Who Owns the Social Media Conversation by Search Engine Watch 

Vendors and Vendor Resources 

BuzzLogic: Welcome to the Conversation

BuzzLogic is a digital media company with a data-driven ad platform built to optimize advertising across the largest pool of trusted blog content on the web.

Monitoring the Social Media Conversation:  From Twitter to Facebook (Download white paper) by Vocus

Best

Denice MacDonald

I’ve come across a great real-time information advantage when monitoring competitors for clients – it’s called Workstreamer. Workstreamer is a business listening platform that delivers a competitive information advantage to business professionals.  And...it's free!

If you can relate to any of the following – you need Workstreamer:  

1. You want to know when someone is talking about your company in a public forum (online).
2. You want to stay on top of your competitors. Keeping your enemies closer.
3. You want to know when your biggest customers are making moves in the marketplace.
4. You're always looking for new ways to arm your salesforce with competitive information. 

Listen to your competitors (or even your own company/business) so you can be in the know, before anyone else. 

Best,

Denice MacDonald 

[Information and logo courtesy of http://www.workstreamer.com/]

B2B firms led the first wave of social media adoption five years ago with aggressive blogging initiatives. More recently, Twitter, the simple yet powerful micro-blogging service, has lowered the barriers to social media entry for B2B entities almost to zero – allowing organizations to deliver sizable traffic to corporate and product Web content.  

Moreover, HR and legal departments are happy to see the ‘tweet’ alternative – diminishing any opportunity for users to provide inappropriate content with only 140 characters to get their message across.  In fact, Twitter has become a tool to point followers to safe corporate content – a means to monitor and listen to customer complaints before they get out of hand. 

Let’s not forget LinkedIn, the social network for professional adults – growing to 50 million users in 2009. The social network has become a popular destination for B2B companies in search of top talent or business professionals with areas of common interest. Moreover, LinkedIn claims its member demographics outpace those of The Wall Street Journal. 

With more than 500 million members, Facebook is the 800-pound gorilla of social networks. While it has been less popular with B2B marketers than other alternatives, companies including Ernst & Young, Forrester and IBM have built sizable fan bases there. Facebook is particularly popular with corporate recruiters trying to reach young job-seekers.  

Here are a few B2B social applications that will aid with integrated social initiatives – providing mechanisms to syndicate content, share content and monitor activity for future refinement:

SlideShare translates the popularity of PowerPoint presentations as a conversational medium into a membership that is reportedly approaching 10 million.  

BrightTALK takes the complexity out of managing an ongoing series of live and pre-recorded webcasts by consolidating them all into a single destination ‘channel’. It’s where you create webcasts and where your audience goes to see them. 

PRESSfeed, a social media newsroom, makes it easy for journalists, bloggers and site visitors to find and share your content. Content syndication through trusted channels is the next large wave for B2B social marketers. 

In the coming year, B2B marketers will turn their attention to expanding and optimizing the channels they use. Companies such as Jive are bringing tools to market that enable enterprises to manage large-scale social conversations while publishing simultaneously to multiple destinations.  

Great Resources: 

Social Media Will Change B2B Distribution Channels by Social Media B2B (Check out the entire site!)

9 Social Listening & Tracking Tools by Connected Marketer 

B2B Spending on Social Media to Explode by eMarketer

It's Official: Facebook Passes 500 Million Users by Mashable

Best

Denice MacDonald

The publication Biology of Belief - Unleashing The Power  Of Consciousness, Matter And Miracles is groundbreaking work in the field of new biology, and it will forever change how you think about thinking.  

Through the research of Dr. Lipton and other leading-edge scientists, stunning new discoveries have been made about the interaction between your mind and body and the processes by which cells receive information.  

It shows that genes and DNA do not control our biology, that instead DNA is controlled by signals from outside the cell, including the energetic messages emanating from our thoughts. Suffice to say – you are what you think. 

Using simple language, illustrations, humor, and everyday examples, he demonstrates how the new science of Epigenetics is revolutionizing our understanding of the link between mind and matter and the profound effects it has on our personal lives and the collective life of our species. 

Want to learn more? Try out an excerpt from the book here or go to Amazon to purchase the book.

About the Author

Bruce Lipton, Ph.D. is an internationally recognized authority in bridging science and spirit and a leading voice in new biology. A cell biologist by training, he taught Cell Biology at the University of Wisconsin’s School of Medicine, and later performed pioneering studies at Stanford University’s School of Medicine. He has been a guest speaker on dozens of TV and radio shows, as well as keynote presenter for national conferences. 

Best

Denice MacDonald

My favorite resource Website Magazine has posted a timely article in their August publication: The New Content Experience - Driving awareness, providing entertainment and generating profit.  

Strategic Web Content Kicks Brochureware Content to the Curb
This timely article indicates that ... "there is more content available on the Web than ever before, and it’s being delivered to consumers at blinding speeds. To make 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." 

Great Example: White Papers and Thought Leadership
“Those seeking information on solutions, trends and technologies are the ideal audience for a content marketing strategy. Our question throughout is not just what kind of content to create but what format will resonate best. The answer, particularly for those in business-to-business industries, is white papers…” 

The article goes on to discuss video and other rich media has part of the content mix. 

Check out the article. 

Subscribe to Website Magazine.  

More on content strategy by MacDonald Consulting:

Web Content: Relevant, Persuasive and to the Point 

Get it right: Web Copy 

Best

Denice MacDonald

Each day, Groupon features an unbeatable deal on the best stuff to do, see, eat, and buy in your city. By promising businesses a minimum number of customers, they get discounts you won't find anywhere else. They call the concept "collective buying power!" 

Thanks to Facebook, I’ve been introduced to Groupon in my city. All you need do is go to their site and sign up – you only need an e-mail address to browse but will have to fill out more detailed profile information to get the latest discount/coupon. You will have to provide a credit card to participate on a deal but will only be billed should the Groupon garner enough participants. 

How It Works

1. Each day Groupon features something cool to do at an unbeatable price.
2. You only get it if enough people join that day… so invite your friends! (Suffice how I found it virally via my Facebook friends)
3. Check back the next day for another awesome Groupon or have e-mail alerts sent to you.

Lastly, if you refer a friend – you get $10. That’s it! If you want to learn more, check out the YouTube video above.

Best

Denice MacDonald

Corporate blogs have become the hub for many social media intiatives. And, anyone who has a vested interest in a corporate blog knows it takes time and effort to produce a great blog - especially if it is the cornerstone for most of your corporation's social media content.

Here are my 'must-haves' for a successful corporate blog:

Blogger shows enthusiasm for his/her blog. If it's written to fill space, I can tell. I’m only interested in blogs that surprise, delight, amuse and inform offering a unique view into your organization.

The blog is well written. I read certain blogs because I not only enjoy reading them, but I’m truly getting information that is important to me – in a style of writing that is more conversational and with the bloggers point of view (good or bad) in mind.

The blog has links to other blogs, newsfeeds or other relevant information. I want to know that this blog is going to get me the next relevant click of information. I love resources, links back to other blogs and creditable information so that I can understand the bloggers opinion or slant.

The blog is updated regularly. There’s nothing worse than finding a great blog only to find out that the blogger blogs on a sporadic basis. I want a blog to be committed to me, the reader, by providing ongoing, updated content – especially if I have subscribed to their feeds.

The blog embraces comments and feedback. I welcome an opportunity to comment on content and provide my opinion on topics. More sophisticated blogs allows sign in and the ability to post comments making the blog very interactive and viral in nature. Corporations can reply (in kind) - especially to diffuse any negative connotation about the organization or its products and services.

The blog is properly tagged and categorized. Make it easy for me to move around your blog, clicking on other categories or relevant tags.

Great Blogging Resource at Amazon:

The Corporate Blogging Book by Debbie Weil

More Great Bloggers:

The Rules Behind Creating a Great Blog by Tom Hung, ProBlogger

27 Tips for Building a Kick-ass Blog by Ahmed Bilal

What Makes a Great Company Blog by Mack Collier

Best

Denice MacDonald

With social media on the rise, many marketing professionals are in the midst of explaining, emulating and selling social media to management and/or clients. Why not consider infographics - visual representations of social information, social data or social knowledge?

Specifically, infographics provide statistical relevance, digital integration not to mention future payback that words cannot convey.

The following are great links with various infographics:

35 Great Social Media Infographics by Pat Dyer of Pamorama – 35 great infographics that have been cropped down for viewing – linking to the original graphic.

10 Beautiful Social Media Infographics by Grace Smith of Mashable – Similarly to Pamorama’s collection, this grouping concentrates on both social networking sites and twitter – also linking back to the original graphic.

Social Media Infographics from Slideshare – Tons of infographics – 50 in total.

These social media graphics will help convey your message – quickly.

[Infographic courtesy of Elliance]

Enjoy!

Best

Denice MacDonald

With budgets still tight, how are companies managing to stay connected while bringing engaging and relevant messages to customers?  

Successful companies are learning that if they use interactive elements such as video, polls, FLASH and RSS feeds within their e-mail marketing campaigns, they see higher conversion rates and a stronger connection to their customers.

Video, if created properly, can really enhance your e-mail message and recipient interactivity. By using an enticing image with descriptive impact statements, recipients will be eager to click and link to the video. Include the file size, length of video or formats supported. Use flash video (FLV) whenever possible to achieve higher compression rates. 

• HOW TO: Create Online Video That Works by David Rich

Polls are a great way to entice recipients and engage audiences that want to be heard. Create topics or subjects that will resonate with your intended audience. Provide immediate results, along with associated support material, newsletters or additional links.  

• Best practices: Using polls in e-mail marketing by Karen J. Bannan

RSS feeds are another way to keep customers connected post e-mailing especially if your company has a blog, dedicated community or news section. RSS feeds provide the right amount of content to recipients on their terms making it the perfect connection outside of targeted e-mails.

• Newbie's Guide to Google Reeder - by Josh Lowensohn

In summary, once you have created an on-going e-mail campaign with customers, remember to include interactive elements and content that will continually engage your customers. Remember to measure the effectiveness of each campaign and refine where necessary.

Best,

Denice MacDonald

Are you gearing up for your first mobile advertising initiative? Don’t be too concerned - mobile is simply another medium to add to your arsenal to target the right audience. 

In basic terms, it’s about finding the right places to connect your client with the right audience to deliver the right message.  

To help us get it right, Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has created a detailed Mobile Buyers Guide to help us plan and gather basic information that is vital to any successful advertising campaign.  

Since mobile is a distinctive platform, this step can be overlooked due to the misconception that the basic rules of advertising do not apply. 

The Guide will give you the necessary background information as well as provide an overview of the marketplace, definitions as well as practical examples to gain a greater understanding of mobile as an advertising platform.  

According to the Guide: “The best campaigns keep the user experience in mind. For consumers, mobile offers convenient information, entertainment, and exclusivity. Tailoring campaigns that deliver marketing messages that are also convenient, entertaining and offer exclusive content or discounts is the key to success.” 

The Power of Mobile: 

Gartner: Mobile Advertising To Grow 74% In 2009 by MediaPost

Report: Mobile Users Responding to Mobile Advertising by Wireless Week

Mobile Advertising – The Next Big Thing by The Economist

Best

Denice MacDonald

Here it is – the future of a website redesign strategy – the marriage of three critical components: cloud services, social media and web content management (WCM). Take a look at Newsweek.com who recently launched a total site redesign incorporating these significant platforms to stay ahead of the pack while enticing visitors to come back for more. 

Perfect Case Study 

Newsweek.com proves an important and timely case study for any organization that is in the process of a site redesign or redeployment. Reason simply, websites will now require strong metrics reporting, easy maintenance and extensibility as well as monetization and social integration in order to flourish. Such is the case for Newsweek – a publication and media outlet that has been floundering in recent times.

“The technology allows the business to grow in ways that had been holding it back,” says Geoff Reiss, vice president and general manager of Newsweek Digital. He explains that Newsweek created amazing content over time, but because of the way it was published and organized, “less than 15 percent of that content was discoverable through organic search.” The relaunch of Newsweek.com meant the reintroduction of about 70,000 items of content that had effectively been lost to site visitors. 

The most popular articles at any given time aren’t from the vault, though-they’re stories, video and images linked to on social networks like Digg, Facebook and Twitter and on MSN. Reiss calls Newsweek.com a “peak-driven site. When we produce a piece of content that hits in the marketplace,” he says, “it really hits. We need to be able to serve hundreds of thousands of consumers an hour.” Moreover, traffic isn’t predictable or necessarily tied to events. 

Lastly, Newsweek Digital is using Amazon cloud services to accommodate surges in traffic caused by increased use of social technologies – a marriage made in heaven. 

Take a test drive of Newsweek.com ‘stories’ section and see how some of their strategy can help your organization. 

Source Excerpt:

Newsweek.com redesign fuelled by social media, Amazon cloud and WCM by ZDNet 

Best,

Denice MacDonald

Now that I’m an avid traveler, it has become increasingly important that I find the best travel, hotel or car deal. I routinely use Expedia, CheapTickets and even Priceline. Now, with the intro of KAYAK , I can maximize one-stop-shopping to all these sites by allowing KAYAK  to do all the work.   

        This is how it works     .     .     .     .     . 

KAYAK is a travel search site. Everybody knows what a search site is, and everybody knows what a travel site is. KAYAK is like both, but it’s different in some important ways. 

Like a search site, they can help you find what you want. What makes them different is that they’re specialized. Their tools are made to deeply understand things like airfares and hotel stays. And like a travel site they have flights and hotels. But they’re very different from most travel sites because they don't actually sell plane tickets, hotel rooms, or anything else. 

KAYAK  helps people find the best travel choices easily by searching the data from hundreds of travel sites at once. KAYAK  lets you compare options, and when you find something that fits your budget and tastes, you book it where you want: at the airline site, from the hotel, or from a travel agent. 

OK, now you’re wondering how they make money. It’s all advertising. Just like you can watch (most) TV shows for free, you can use KAYAK  all you want, free. 

KAYAK  has local websites in eleven countries including US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, India, and Spain, and offer free mobile apps for the iPhone, iPad, Android, and BlackBerry. 

Just for fun - check them out for your next travel destination.

Best,

Denice MacDonald 

Technology experts and stakeholders say they expect they will ‘live mostly in the cloud’ in 2020 and not on the desktop, working mostly through cyberspace-based applications accessed through networked devices.

Pew said, "the number of cloud users has grown; there are 500 million people sharing friendships 'in the cloud' on Facebook, and many millions are using the cloud every time they access a Hotmail or Gmail account for e-mail, store browser bookmarks online, maintain a blog on WordPress, or store, link to and view videos and photos on YouTube, Hulu and Flickr."¹ 

Cloud Computing Comparison Guide from Focus Research 

Now you can easily choose the best cloud computing solutions for your company with this comparison guide from Focus Research.

Learn the specific differences between eight of the leading cloud-computing vendors and see which will fit your specific business needs.

Download the Cloud Computing Comparison Guide to get side-by-side comparisons of multiple topics including:

• Support Options
• Security Features
• Bandwidth and storage solutions
• Scalability 

Note: You will need to complete a simple form to get this guide – but well worth it.² 

Related Post: Cloud Computing: The Here and Now 

Resources and Excerpts taken directly from:

1.  The Future of Cloud Computing from Pew Internet

2.  Cloud Computing Comparison Guide from Focus Research

Best,

Denice MacDonald

I’ve just begun following Chris (thanks to ace social guru Augie Ray). Chris has posted an exceptional blog on 50 Power Twitter Tips.   

Chris breaks down the tips into five categories: intent, technical, business, integrated usage, and off-twitter.  

Lastly, check out the great comments from others on the blog post web page. Amazing responses. 

Feel free to repost all or any of this, but if you do, please give credit to this link. 

About Chris

Chris Brogan is President of New Marketing Labs, a new media marketing agency. He works with large and mid-sized companies to improve online business communications like marketing and PR through the use of social software, community platforms, and other emerging web and mobile technologies.  

Chris is author of the recently released Social Media 101 (Amazon affiliate link). 

For more information on this, please contact Chris directly. 

Likewise, follow Chris on Twitter.

Best

Denice MacDonald