The Web Uncovered

The evolution of digital marketing has forever changed the way marketers have to think about how to build and manage a brand. No longer a “behind the scenes” function, marketers are now one of the most critical and visible functions of a successful organization. With responsibility for both traditional and digital marketing channels, an effective marketer must be a strategist, writer, online guru, relationship builder, executer and more.

But many communicators are struggling to find the most efficient and effective way to connect traditional marketing tactics and digital marketing tactics.

When connected effectively, traditional and digital marketing tactics offer immense opportunities to build market recognition, increase brand awareness and provide the foundation for strong and sustainable growth. To do so, successful marketers must turn to the “Multi-Touch” approach.

The “Multi-Touch” approach combines traditional marketing (advertising, public relations, events, etc.), which offers opportunities to reach the masses, with digital marketing (social networking, SEO, etc), which offers a more personalized, one-on-one communication opportunity. This integration allows marketers to offer consistent messaging that resonates to as many of the ‘right’ customers as possible, through all the proper channels.

The integrated marketing campaign that is created through the “Multi-Touch” approach provides marketers to use existing assets from traditional marketing for search and social media marketing efforts, and vice versa. Utilized by smart marketers, the “Multi-Touch” approach and integrated marketing campaigns can generate the measurable results needed to build your business quickly and effectively.

Written by Twitter Handle @jabraha7

If you are a technology nut like me, you are always interested in trying out the latest applications or tools available. Several months ago, I was lucky enough to get an early preview invite to join Google’s new communication and collaboration tool, Google Wave. The online tool is reinventing email one wave (conversation) and blip (message) at a time.

The platform combines email, instant messaging and online collaboration into a real-time system. It can be used by two people or a whole group of people. Instead of cc’ing a person on a message, you can add that person to the conversation. Users apart of a wave can follow messages in real-time, play back the entire conversation timeline and even add to or edit any part of the conversation.

While it seems confusing at first, these videos shine a light on Google Wave’s simplicity and functionality: http://simurl.com/simplewave

Although my time on Google Wave has been limited, I can already see the value in this new form of online collaboration. Instead of having an inbox full of emails back and forth between two people or a group of people, Google Wave provides a live timeline of events and updates with full editing functionality. You can even collaborate on documents in real-time as a group and embed photos, videos and maps in to the conversation.

More than one million users are actively using Google Wave in preview mode. New outlets and publications like RedEye Chicago are hosting daily waves to discuss timely and relevant topics with their readers.

There are still some kinks for Google to work out, but once Google Wave advances past preview mode and catches on with the masses, I can see this as a revolution in the business world. A

Blip me at www.googlewave.com/jabraha7

Written by Twitter Handle @jabraha7

Online sales are up from last year through most of the holiday season. But it’s the largest Internet retailers that have been the big winners. One reason: Customers are more satisfied with their experiences with big e-commerce companies than with smaller services.
The 40 largest online-retail Web sites achieved their highest level of customer satisfaction during the 2009 holiday season, according to a survey by ForeSee Results, an e-commerce consulting firm. These companies averaged a satisfaction score of 79 on ForeSee’s index compared with a score of 74 in both 2008 and 2007.
But a similar survey of the 110 online retailers that ForeSee works with–which range from large to small–found that overall satisfaction dropped to a 73, compared with a 75 in 2008 and a 77 in 2007. The smallest companies took the biggest hits.
“The strong are getting stronger and the rest of the pack is getting weaker,” says Larry Freed, ForeSee’s chief executive.
Read the rest of this post on the original site

Holiday Cheer Spreads for E-Commerce Giants
December 30, 2009
by Ben Worthen
Reporter, The Wall Street Journal

If it seems like I am writing a lot about Google products, it is because I am.  Lately it seems like Google has become a factory of clever ideas trying to one-up and out maneuver their competition.  Whether it be Google Squared, (I’ll write about this when its up), set to take on Wolfram-Alpha, or Google Wave, which could end up revolutionizing group projects online, Google is always up to something.

This time it’s Google’s Web Elements.  For those of you who read my blog article on Google Friend Connect Social Bar, this is very closely related.  Simply put, rather than having to reinvent the wheel when you want to add basic functions to your website, you can get them pre-fabricated by Google.  This includes:  Calendar, Conversation, Maps, Custom Search, Video, Presentations, News, and Spreadsheets.  So This is how easy it is:  You want to add a calendar?  click on the calendar on the Web Elements page, type in the the size, links to content, whatever they ask.  Then Google prepares a custom javascript snippet that you can cut and paste into your code.  Couldn’t be any easier!  Check it out for yourself.

If you look to the right of this post you may notice a little box standing out.  This is the Google Friend Connect Social Bar.  While Google Connect thus far hasn’t proven to be much a useful tool, the Social Bar is an interesting concept.  Essentially this box allows you to see which of your contacts are visiting the same sites as you.  Also, it can reveal people who visit the same sites as you.  Essentially it can help you build a social network around the websites you use, which has a definite value added that other social networks have yet to address.  

Want to add the Social Bar to your website?  Google makes it rediculously easy.  You simply go to their Friend Connect page and edit the look of your Social Bar.  When you are done they give you custom javascript code, which you simply input in your website code, according to where you want it placed.  It doesn’t get much easier than that!  This is a great tool for those also working to build community around their website.  While it may not be the most useful tool at this point, the underlying technology is definitely something we will be seeing more of.

So for those of you who have a content-based website that you are marketing, you know that search technologies are important.  Not only are these technologies important to understand, but media consumers are increasingly looking at keyword searches and trends to determine legitimacy.  Showcasing your own searches, or searches for keywords related to your product or service, has been impossible.

Until Now.  Google has released Google Trends Gadget, which is available for free.  Still not sure how cool this is?  Imagine you are selling an over-the-counter flu remedy from your website.  When people visit your website, they can see how the search results have increased for the word “flu” at the beginning of the flu season.  Also, it allows for comparables.  The customizable aspect of the tool makes it easy to implement and use.  

The Takeaway:   In the new epoch of microblogging, the term “now” means less “this year” and more “the next fifteen minutes.”  Harness developing technologies to exploit this trend, especially those involved in search technology.