Just about everything people say on Twitter is public, offering marketers a rare chance to listen in on what folks are saying about their brands, and to trumpet their messages to the masses.
Unfortunately for the marketers, Twitter users fail spectacularly when it comes to disseminating branding messages to each other –- the stuff of which advertisers’ dreams are made. After all, word of mouth can make or break a company’s sales, and Twitter is nothing if not “word of mouth.”
Google has announced via it’s haloed king, Matt Cutts, that it has has tweaked it’s search results algorithm for long-tail search results. Relevant “quality content” is king. Don’t believe it, listen to the king. Fast forward to 1:38!
Bing! The search engine’s trademark sound never sounded so sweet — not to the internet marketing community, anyway. Yesterday saw the debut of the revamped Bing Webmaster Tools, revealing a three-pronged focus on crawling, indexing, and traffic.
New features include:
Also, Bing is going to roll-out additional tools all the time. Watch your back, Google!
Now for the bad news: The main downside to Bing’s new set of tools is that they require you to first download Microsoft’s Silverlight 4, a development platform most of us would rather get to… in our own time. You can’t even watch the new Bing Webmaster Tools’ introductory video without getting Silverlight.
Overall, though, Bing Webmaster Tools is an exciting addition to the world of business marketing. We look forward to seeing new features, and otherwise reaping the benefits of the ongoing Google-Bing rivalry.
When it comes to planning your business website, it’s important to remember one thing: everything. Every single detail — from font to slogan to color pallet — can help your business stand out from the crowd. Because internet marketing is about more than just SEO or PPC (or, OMG, any of the other acronyms we use). It’s about branding your site to match your business.
Today, we’re here to talk about logos. Not yours, necessarily, but the logos you can place on your blog and website to link to your Facebook or Twitter pages, or encourage readers to bookmark your content on Digg, StumbleUpon, Delicious, Reddit, etc.
The standard approach here is to include each service’s standard icon, as in the group of pictures shown above. This presents your business as in-the-know, well connected, sleek, and modern, but it is not the most creative approach. Let’s take a look at some of our favorite specialty sets — all of which are available free from their creators:
Woven Fabric icons by Dawghouse Design Studio — Perfect for clothing and fabric shops, organic food stores, maybe even garden supply retailers.
Hand Drawn Doodle icons by Spoon Graphics — Any sort of office supply company would be write right at home with these, don’t you think?
Old Bottle Crowns icons (also) by Dawghouse Design Studio — Vending machine manufacturers? Soda distributors? The business marketing possibilities are endless!
What is Ajax? A figure in Greek mythology? A household cleaner? A programming technique? Yes, yes, and yes. But at the Ajax Union marketing company, we’re mostly concerned with the latter definition.
Short for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, Ajax is a family of development methods designed to turn regular websites into online applications. With Ajax, the content and design of a website can update live without requiring new information from the server. That means no more reloading, no more hourglasses, no more pinwheels.
Google Maps is a good example. Thanks to Ajax, Google’s mapping software can update its information without constant reloading. Users toggle between various routes and forms of transportation (driving, biking, walking, public transit) and see live updates on the page as the highlighted route and accompanying directions change the match the new settings.
Can you imagine how tedious Google Maps would be if you had to wait for the page to reload every time you made an adjustment? There’d be a lot more aimless drivers and walkers roaming around, that’s for sure.
A potent force in business marketing and online development, Ajax is likewise a great reminder of the internet’s vast capabilities, and how far we’ve seen it grow since the days of dialup.
