Does the concept of web marketing and Social Network sites scare you? Does it seem like there are too many things for you and your company to get proficient? Does it make you sure you’re missing major opportunities?
My colleague, Barbara Irias, at Placemaking Group and I had the opportunity this week to speak to the Learning Café. The topic was Opening the Black Box of Web Marketing. We talked about the fact that Social Networking and all the other aspects of Web marketing are really just tools. And you need to use the proper tool for the proper situation. We talked about Barbara’s ABCs of SEO. That’s one of my favorite subjects because there is so much to gain from doing Search Engine Optimization properly. But it sounds so technical, when really it’s just doing obvious things on your web site to make sure the proper keywords are in the right places.
Sounds like I’m doing the same thing to you– making it sound impenetrable! Well, download the ABCs of SEO. If you have questions about them, email Barbara or me and we’ll help you figure it out!
Then there are Social Network sites. The best known these days are Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace and Twitter. Each one is different. You don’t necessarily need to use them all. Use the tool that helps you the most to solve your problem. In a few words, MySpace is more advertising based; LinkedIn is great for business connections and asking questions of your business contacts; Facebook is a way to show you as a person; Twitter was originally intended to be the communication mechanism to tell your friends when you’re going to lunch, now it is a way of sending out mini-headlines.
Is that quick enough to get you thinking? Our thanks to Diane Fleck of the Learning Café for the opportunity to talk to her huge audience of CEOs and leaders!
Hi Dennis,
I recently read back through my notes from the Opening the Black Box of Web Marketing lecture, and was again impressed by the breadth of topics you covered.
While I imagine that each attendee came away with something different, I was particularly impressed with the questions you suggested a business owner consider when exploring a new Social Network or online technology, and recently discussed them in a blog post of my own: Online Marketing: Are You Doing it Right?
If you get a chance to look at it, I would be interested in hearing your thoughts.
Thanks!