Who knew? We have our own LATE NIGHT show here in Burlington -- it's run out of Champlain College's Alumni Auditorium on Thursday nights. It airs on WCAX-TV on Saturday night at 11:30 p.m.
This small show has beat out Leno and tied Letterman and Saturday Night Live in it's first book Nielsen for November 2006.
That's right. BURLINGTON!!
Check it out!
My theme tonight is about keeping up. First off, how did almost a month go by since my last posting?? Well it is the life of a professor, student, mom...stuff happens! But that brings to mind the importance of keeping up in the world of Blogs...and how do you do it, and what should you post?
Tonight I have several observations about keeping up. I received an email today from my friends at EPIKONE, a local SEO and Web Analytics firm located in Williston, VT. The biz has been ROCK'N this week according to Paul who wrote:
There have been some major deals involving some of the largest mobile carriers and website in the U.S. in the last
3 weeks.Check these out, things are developing very quickly,,,,
MySpace Heading to Cingular Phones
http://www.marketingvox.com/archives/2006/12/06/myspace-heading-to-cingular-phones/First YouTube, Now Revver on Verizon Wireless
http://www.marketingvox.com/archives/2006/11/30/first-youtube-now-revver-on-verizon-wireless/Ad Targeting for Mobile Web Raises Privacy Concerns
http://www.marketingvox.com/archives/2006/11/27/ad-targeting-for-mobile-web-raises-privacy-concerns/
Moving QUICKLY?? Ok...that's an understatement Paul! The power of social networking on the mobile phone. Video on the mobile phone. Ads on the mobile phone. It's not too hard to see where we are heading...just check out Japan and how they are using their phones! Barcode and coupon scanning with your cell phone from a magazine ad can imbed a coupon on your cell so you can use it at a store. Colleges are now launching opt-in SMS messaging for students so they can sign up for news and information.
So I'm working on keeping up thanks to others in the field and will be bringing all of this to my classes -- including our online classes in Social Networking and Online Visibility in the Spring Semester. With articles like the above listed, my reading will change often and since classes don't start for another month...WHO knows what we'll be reading!
At what point do we become so overwhelmed by the possibilities out there that we don't know which really cool thing to use? Wikis are a case in point.
Here's my Wiki, where I'm addressing how and why to have a Wiki.
Wikipedia of course, is the mother of all Wiki's. The creation of an online living encyclopedia that just keeps growing and growing..contributed to not by highly paid experts, but by volunteers who have an expertise or knowledge of a subject -- just for the joy of doing it! Sharing knowledge.
Of course, there is the RSS option as well. I've set up my Wiki at WikiSpaces.com -- yet another free place if I can handle a few Google ads. So here at my Wiki, I now have an RSS feed dumping into my NetVibes feed reader so I can tell when anyone has updated my Wiki.
Knowledge is power! Wiki's are power! RSS keeps me informed. All the information is getting indexed. It is a never ending process.
So..come on over to my Wiki and lets look at how Wiki's can be used for marketing!
The next book I've decided to profile is Search Engine Optimization: An Hour A Day by Jennifer Grappone and Gradiva Couzin.
I'm digging this book because it is easy to read, clear and really highlights the importance of Search Engine Marketing. At the same time, much like the Moran and Hunt book, these authors get it! The Search and Internet Marketing world is changing faster than the traditional publishing world can keep up. So, these authors have a Website at http://www.yourseoplan.com. Not only does this site work to promote their book, it also provides articles and resources that are useful and keep things current.
There is a great overview and then the authors break it all down. What steps do you take and when do you take them, and most importantly...WHY?
I'll be using excerpts from this book in my Internet-based Marketing class next week because our topic is SEO. We've covered analytics and PPC, we've moved quickly through RSS, Blogs, e-mail newsletters, social networking and mobile marketing with an emphasis on how this helps the natural search rankings. Now its time to really get into how all this helps. This book provides the context and the writing style that is real, clear and easy to apply to other businesses. It's a winner for sure!
This week I begin a listing of a series of books that I think are really important for Internet Marketing if you want to keep up!
I begin with Search Engine Marketing, Inc.: Driving Search Traffic to your Company's Web Site by Mark Moran and Bill Hunt.
Why do I like the book by Moran and Hunt? Well, it's thorough for one. It provides a host of information on this ever changing field. It is topical in approach and right from the start highlights why this field is so challenging. At the same time, it highlights not just the how-to of search, but it also gets into the challenges marketers face when trying to operationalize a search marketing effort.
Mostly, however its kept up to date through Moran's blog and his website at mikemoran.com.
Here's a listing of recent topics from his blog which highlight why it is so important to keep up. Multivariate Testing, Web Analytics Success, and Metrics-based Web Search are just a few of the recent postings in the blog.
So as a professor, if I use this book as a supplement in my class or recommend it to my Marketing and e-Business students, there is a place to go for them to stay on top of things when the book becomes out of date.
I HATE telling students to not pay attention to something in a text -- especially in this field -- because it hurts my credibility -- and the book's credibility.
So can I use this book in my Internet Marketing class? Yes I can. Will I? Well that decision won't be made until the summer when I once again take a hard look at the course and turn it inside out and upside down. It's a summer tradition with our Internet Marketing class at Champlain and is the only way we can keep it current.
There's a lot to teach in 15 weeks to Business, e-Business, International Business, Marketing, Multi-media and Graphic design, and PR students. SEM is just one aspect of a course that covers topics that include usability, ethics, SEO, SEM, Web Analytics, AdWords, social networking, RSS, Blogging, online visibility...and how to do this for a REAL client.
Just a quick posting today...check out this piece from Vermont Public Radio on how political advertising is impacting TV and Radio broadcasting: http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/vpr/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=990831.
Pay attention that that last part from WCAX -- they've actually SHORTENED their news broadcast in order to accomodate all the ads. Um...WHAT???
Is there something wrong with blogging in more than one place, other than the fact that I can't keep up??
As I explore VOX, I'll compare and contrast this with blogger. Which one is better from a user stand point? Which one really gets at that social media optimization thing and should I keep both or do something else?
It's a good question. But at the moment, VOX is looking pretty interesting with it'sMySpace/Facebook/Linked In feel but with the blogging and yet...it seems to be more. It's much easier to format and play with the text, the tagging comes very easy and the fact that I can include the video, audio etc. is very cool.
I like the book listing. For example, I can click on Books and then bring up Amazon and link to a book that I think is something that my students should read (see right hand side). I can move it around the page very easily.
I've also been able to select video from YouTube or iFilm or Amazon, searching them from directly within VOX and then add them to my page. The video I have selected is from the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty. I selected it because it is a social marketing campaign that I've been following for some time and that we talk about quite extensively in my Non-Profit and Social Marketing class. We started looking at it last year...and now this new video which has been put on YouTube and iFilm:
Of course I can also add in audio as well. I can tag each element and tag my overall post. And there's spell check!
Lot's of bonuses here so far
