VUE MEDIA GROUP (www.VUEMediaGroup.com) March 4, 2009

Greetings, My name is Shawn Welk; I am the New Media director for VUE Media Group. I would like to take this time to share some valuable information in regards to our services and marketing. VUE Media Group provides customized professional design and website management tailored to fit any client or artists, from small to medium businesses and corporate America. Expert Web Design and Marketing! Whether you want us to build your website or you wish to do it yourself, VUE Media Group (www.VUEMediaGroup.com) has the solutions you need at the best prices you’ll find. VUE Media Group (www.VUEMediaGroup.com) is not an overseas company. VUE Media Group (www.VUEMediaGroup.com) is located in beautiful Southern California & Atlantic Beach, Fl USA. Questions? Pick up the phone and ask us!

Custom Website Design!

Our web sites are perfect for businesses of all sizes. Each website comes with it’s own content management system allowing you to manage, edit and modify your website from any Internet location without any special programs. VUE Media Group (www.VUEMediaGroup.com) can also expand your website with any type of features your business needs from Social Networks (similar to Facebook and MySpace) to shopping carts to media galleries. But VUE Media Group (www.VUEMediaGroup.com) does not stop there! Our website packages come with 1 year free hosting, personalized training so you can manage your website and as always direct access to your project manager. In addition, VUE Media Group (www.VUEMediaGroup.com) can increase traffic to your website with our highly experienced search engine optimization team.

Build Your Own Website!

VUE Media Group (www.VUEMediaGroup.com) offer two methods to become your own web designer. Professional website Design Templates and our easy to use Online Web Site Builder. Web Design Templates are pre-websites recommended for those who already have some background with web design and web development programs like Photoshop, Flash and HTML editors. Just make your modifications and upload the files to your server. VUE Media Group (www.VUEMediaGroup.com) carries templates for Flash, HTML, Open Source CMS, Ecommerce, Forums and many more. Over 10,000 designs to choose from! These design templates make it easy for the novice or professional to complete their project on time and with amazing visual results.

Online Web Site Builders allows the beginner webmaster to choose from over 1,500 template designs and using our online management system you can build your first webpage in as little as ten minutes. Our site builder comes with dozens of features included like shopping carts, photo galleries, newsletters and more. For as little as $24/month you can have a website up today.

Mobile Marketing!

VUE Media Group (www.VUEMediaGroup.com) enables cost-effective, customized mobile marketing and communications for any brand, media company, marketing agency, or content owner. VUE Media Group (www.VUEMediaGroup.com) is an industry leader in advanced mobile technology and solutions for clients across all industries. Our solution is built on a multi-functional patent-pending web-based software, custom integrated campaigns, and exceptional support to our clients. VUE Media Group, Keeping Internet Solutions Simple! Once again, thank you for your interest and I look forward to speaking with you soon. Please send me two times you might be available for us to further discuss your needs and how we can help. To Your Success, Shawn Welk 904.545.3928 ShawnWelk@gmail.com www.InSocialMedia.com Economic depression cannot be cured by legislative action or executive pronouncement. Economic wounds must be healed by the action of the cells of the economic body – the producers and consumers themselves. Herbert Hooverar future. My dept works in the Internets social world. Check outMyspace.com/NUSwerve, Myspace.com/Interchanges, Myspace.com/VWDUBClub, MySpace.com/CaitlinBrunell,Myspace.com/LiveVolvo

www.LiveVolvo.Com

www.VWDUBClub.com

www.CaitlinsCloset.org

Stay tuned for some Pop Culture Living. I am all about endorsing life thru Pop Culture Marketing….

Shawn

HOW USING SMS SHORT CODES CAN HAVE AN IMMEDIATE IMPACT ON BRAND AWARENESS IN 2009 January 23, 2009

Almost every company that has embarked on mobile advertising and outreach efforts

has said that the most effective way to understand the power of mobile and what it

means to a company is to simply jump in and do it.

 

Key ways that SMS SHORT CODES are being commonly used to reach and engage audiences, some of which are discussed in greater detail below:

 

Creating a dialog and a relationship. SMS SHORT CODES are being used effectively to create

 

a dialog with mobile users. Voting, polling, requests for feedback, sweepstakes,

and contests all require interactivity with the consumer and the brand. This

interaction through SMS SHORT CODES provides valuable information about target audiences,

allowing organizations to even more closely tailor their products and associated

marketing to evolving marketplace needs.

 

Customer and employee communications. SMS SHORT CODES and text messaging are

being used by companies and even schools to distribute information, such as

employee alerts, school closings, airline reservation updates, and sales alerts.

Catalog companies and direct-to-consumer mobile commerce companies are

using SMS SHORT CODES  along with keyword item numbers as a way to allow customers to

order products without calling into a service center. This approach reduces the

number of calls handled by operators, which in turn reduces costs and can

increase customer satisfaction. 

 

Increasing brand reach. SMS SHORT CODES  are also playing a key role in increasing the

 

reach of brands and organizations. For instance, groups in the United States that

may index low for home PC penetration conversely often index high for mobile

phones. Through SMS SHORT CODES, they can now be reached with electronic media. In the

developing world, national short codes allow consumers to be cost-effectively

reached on an individual basis for the first time ever, whereas previously,

advertising campaigns were limited to mass-market radio and billboards.

 

Sales lead generation. U.S. companies of all sizes are using SMS SHORT CODES  in their

marketing efforts to generate interest and engagement with brands, which

immediately or eventually turn into sales leads. For instance, Lexus successfully

used SMS SHORT CODES to develop self-qualified sales leads. And it has been reported that

Denver-based Clarion Ventures is planning to launch the SMS SHORT CODES that spells the word

“House” on the cell phones keypad as a way for users to request that more

information be sent to their cell phones on houses that are for sale. Brands have

reported that potential customers who signal their product interest through SMS SHORT CODES  

are often highly motivated, which can result in SMS SHORT CODES response rates as high as 10%. 

 

Content distribution. Short codes are one of the key ways that mobile content

providers distribute content directly to mobile users, which avoids reliance on

already-crowded wireless carrier “content decks.” Carrier decks are the screens of

content options that each carrier’s subscribers see on their cell phones. Getting

placement on a carrier deck is a costly and long process and must be done on a

carrier-by-carrier basis. While brands can get immediate access to all subscribers

on a particular carrier deck, carriers make frequent changes to their decks, offering

less control for brands. By using SMS SHORT CODES and other forms of “off deck” access, brands

can reach almost all wireless users, not just those of a particular carrier. 

 

Fundraising. Nonprofits are increasingly interested in short codes for fundraising

efforts, having successfully used them to raise relief funds for the 2004 tsunami

in Asia and for Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

 

Mobile advertising. Brands from almost every industry sector are beginning to

 

incorporate SMS SHORT CODES into their marketing campaigns such as on billboards, in print, and

even in TV advertising in order to deliver additional marketing information directly to

users. For instance, shows on MTV regularly include SMS SHORT CODES information to further

involve audiences and drive additional content sales. New mobile advertising formats

are coming onto the scene, including banner ads, sponsorships, product placement

and idle screens, and pre- and post-roll video. Like SMS SHORT CODES, each of these mobile

advertising formats is a sophisticated way to reach customers. In fact, text advertising

can be added to SMS SHORT CODES so that the confirming message the consumer receives from

the brand can also have a line of advertising in it. This not only allows brands to

engage with consumers through SMS SHORT CODES but also allows their closest advertisers to

advertise contextually next to the appropriate mobile content. However, unlike most

mobile advertising, SMS SHORT CODES require single or double opt-ins. Thus, brands know

consumers are interested and receptive to messages initiated by SMS SHORT CODES. 

 

Building databases. Information is power, and savvy organizations are using

SMS SHORT CODES to build powerful mobile information databases on existing and prospective

customers, such as what promotions they respond to, which mobile coupons they

actually redeem and when, and how often they respond to mobile alerts, by

integrating SMS SHORT CODES response data into existing databases. These databases can be

used to develop and support loyalty programs, coupon and direct response

offers, and Internet-like experiences with media ranging from print to radio.

 

Online connections can build customer base January 12, 2009

Online connections can build customer base

 

Jacksonville Business Journal – by Dolly Penland Correspondent

 

Many people get most of their information from the Internet, especially when planning to buy products or services. Consumers want solid product information rather than responding to traditional marketing techniques. However, one thing that hasn’t changed over the years is the value of advice and recommendations from friends before buying.

One way companies can find those most interested in their offerings and provide the information they want is to make customers into friends through social networking sites such as Myspace or Facebook.

“In the past, with traditional media, advertisers would just dominate the market by pushing their message through as many outlets as possible: TV, radio, newsprint, whereas now the buyer has control,” said Shawn Welk, director of new media at Interchanges.com. One technique the company calls “social droving” involves identifying and inviting likely “friends.”

Because many buyers avoid any hint of a hard sell, those who join a company’s network presumably have a genuine interest in the product. “You invite them to be part of the network and they choose to be part of that network,” said Welk, who works with businesses on social marketing strategies. “They can stay with you or opt out” at a later date.

Businesses and other groups can create networks of friends. “It allows for more information without being bombarded with heavy sales tactics,” Welk said. Businesses “use it as an information tool, to send information to prospective customers.”

Social networking won’t guarantee a sale, but it does give companies another channel to pass on information.

“Traditionally, Volvo and VW customers e-mail or call,” said Dennis Walters, Internet sales and marketing manager at O’Steen Automotive Group, which has two sites, www.myspace.com/livevolvo and www.myspace.com/vwdubclub. With computer-savvy clients, “I find them on Myspace and become friends only. They have to accept when they see [the friend request], and they say, ‘That’s the guy I talked to when I went down there or e-mailed.’ It actually works out a lot better.”

Businesses can market to friends via bulletins, blogs or comments. That information can range from offered specials to simple product updates.

“I don’t use Myspace as a sales tool,” Walters said. “I use it as a way to keep in touch, a contact tool to let them know if we’re having free car washes, or new accessories come in, or if we’re looking for certain trade-in cars, or an event going on. We use it as a communication tool more than anything else.”

Walters said being a friend, not a salesman pushing a product, pays off. “I’m getting a very favorable response. Several customers have bought from me [who are] friends.”

Social networking isn’t yet a stand-alone marketing tool, but rather a complement to a standard advertising campaign. “You can never get rid of television advertising, the radio advertising or even the newspaper advertising,” Walters said.

However, social networking offers a chance to target the most desirable prospects. “Our demographic for Volvo and VW are highly educated and 95 percent of [these car] buyers have broadband in their homes. They’re very Internet-savvy. If your demographic is an educated, Internet-savvy customer, go and advertise where the customers are going to be.”

Social networks also help raise brand awareness, whether for companies or other groups, such as nonprofits.

That’s why Caitlin Brunell decided in November to add a Myspace page,www.myspace.com/caitlinscloset, for her charity Caitlin’s Closet. Founded in 1996, the nonprofit collects new and gently worn ball gowns and donates them to girls who otherwise would not get to go to a prom or other formal function for lack of a dress.

“When it started, it was, ‘We’ll see how many dresses we can get and figure out how we can give them out.’ Now, it’s, ‘Where can we store them all?’ ” said Stacy Brunell, Caitlin’s mom.

The Brunells are getting as involved with their Myspace communities as with the real-life communities in which they live and work. Stacy’s husband and former Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback, Mark, uses his Myspace page to draw friends’ attention to The Brunell Family Foundation, but he also has given the page more personal attention. For example, his social networking friends were the first to find out that he had signed with the New Orleans Saints for the upcoming season.

 

jacksonville@bizjournals.com | 396-3502

Top 10 Social Video Sites March 14, 2008

Top 10 Video SitesThe video numbers are quite staggering. comScore Video Metrix’s reports that over 10 billion videos were watched in December 2007, with about 75% of all American’s online in December watching at least one video.Online users are actively searching for videos. Google trends shows that more people are looking for videos than are interested in shopping or news.You know that YouTube is the 10,000 pound gorilla in the video space, but who are the other websites that you should be looking at, and who visits them? Using Quantcast we have put together a list of the top 10(actually its top 11) video sites that social marketers might be interested in, and who visits these sites.YouTube.comYou cannot have a discussion about video sites without beginning with YouTube. Youtube.com is a huge site that reaches over 62 million U.S. monthly uniques. The site caters to a slightly female (51%) audience that is young (between 18-24) and white (73%). Interestingly 51% of YouTube visitors have a household income over $60k and 53% have attended college or graduate school.DailymotionDailymotion.com is a top 250 site that reaches over 48 million monthly uniques, of which 6.5 million (13%) are in the U.S. The site appeals to a somewhat male audience (60%) that earns between$30-$60k a year.For a video site with such a large user base, Dailymotion is rarely mentioned in the US in mainstream media. Dailymotion allows users to browse videos by searching tags, channels or user-created groups; the search system also introduces results based on things other users have searched for. The maximum size of a video per file is 150 MB (compared to 100 MB for YouTube). Video limit is 20 minutes (compared with YouTube’s 10 minutes)-MetacafeMetacafe is one of the world’s largest video sites that specializes in short-form original content – from new, emerging talents and established Hollywood heavyweights alike. With 27 million unique vistors a month (9 million in the US), Metacafe is the second largest video site in the US.Metacafe attracts a heavily male (61%) audience, between the ages of 25-34 (23%) with a household income of between $30-60k (36%).Metacafe was ranked second behind MySpaceTV in number of user comments per video posted in 2007. The “Metadata Metrics” report from AccuStream iMedia Research equated user comments with engagement.Imeem.comImeem.com is a top 250 site that reaches over 21 million monthly uniques, of which 7.4 million (35%) are in the U.S. The site is popular among a very slightly female biased, more African American, younger group.Launched in October 2004, Imeem.com has both a social network structure as well as a content browsing/filtering structure similar to that of Flickr and YouTube. Quantcast ranks imeem as the top social music site.Vids.MySpace.comVids.myspace.com is a top 250 destination that reaches over 10 million U.S. monthly uniques. The destination attracts a female slanted (57%), youthful (38% are under 24) audience that earns between $30-60k a year. In early 2007, MySpace introduced MySpaceTV (http://myspace.tv/), a service similar to the YouTube. MySpaceTV is now in beta mode, and will be probably be launched as a separate site in either 2008 or early 2009.Google VideoVideo.google.com is a top 250 destination that reaches over 6.0 million U.S. monthly uniques. The destination caters to a young (18-24), white (71%), male audience (53%). Google video attracts a slightly younger audience than YouTube.Video.MSN.comVideo.msn.com is a large destination that reaches over 2.7 million U.S. monthly uniques. The destination appeals to a slightly female audience (51%), older group (52% are over 45)Video.Yahoo.comVideo.Yahoo.com is a top 5,000 destination that reaches over 2.0 million U.S. monthly uniques. The destination caters to a more youthful (18-24 is 31% of audience), male (56%) following that earns between $30-60k.Yahoo video combines a traditional video search engine, which crawls and links off to videos on different web sites, with a traditional video hosting environment that allows users to upload, share, tag, and host their videos on Yahoo!,Livevideo.comLivevideo.com is a top 5,000 site that reaches over 1.7 million U.S. monthly uniques. The site is popular amongst males (60%), 35-44 (23%), who earn between$30-$100k a year(66%).Blip.tvBlip.tv is a top 5,000 site that reaches over 1.4 million U.S. monthly uniques. The site caters to a rather male audience (615), between the ages of 25-34. What makes blip.tv different than the other sites is that it focuses on “episodic content” or “shows,” rather than viral video,Searchforvideo.comSearchforvideo.com is a top 5,000 site that reaches over 561K U.S. monthly uniques. The site attracts a heavily male audience (57%), that is more affluent (53% earn over $60k) and more evenly distributed amongst the different age groups.

Strategies for Quickly Building an Audience with Social Media March 14, 2008

Web 2.0 Internet Marketing: Strategiesfor Quickly Building an Audience with Social MediaExcerpt from article By Gary Smith (c) 2008The Web 2.0 social media revolution is in full steam. Are people finding your website?As an entrepreneur, how do you make your business website stand out amongst 435 million other websites and more than 1 million blogs competing for your audience’s attention?To begin, let’s look at the demographics of Web 2.0 social networking sites, Myspace.com, Facebook and YouTube.com. This will give you an idea on how to position your message in the Web 2.0 World.The Web 2.0 Social Networking RevolutionWeb 2.0 is a real revolution on the Internet. And these aren’t just college kids… 62% of MySpace visitors are older than 25 (40% are 35+), and 83% are making over $30,000 a year. Nineteen percent (19%) are making $100,000 and up… On Facebook.com 46% are over 25 and 34% are 35+, but they’ve got deep pockets. Eighty-eight percent (88%) make more than $30,000 and twenty-three percent (23%) make $100,000 or more.In the years ahead these numbers will get ridiculous… Social media giant Facebook is currently ADDING a million 25+ (non-student) adults per week to their rosters. That’s 52 million new users a year. YouTube.com gets over 50 million unique visitors per month. That equals over half a billion a year. Facebook and MySpace have the equal daily traffic of Google. Experts predict within the next year they will DOUBLE the daily traffic of Google search.So your prospects are there. The traffic is there. The spending power is there. So NOW is the time you want to establish your presence on the social networking websites.Web 2.0 Strategy: Why You Should Be a Maven, Not a MarketerAs a website owner, how should you position your message in the Web 2.0 world?The increasingly savvy buying public will quickly shun marketers. Internet readers want information from the Internet. They don’t want advertising, marketing, or a “pitch”.According to Schefren in his Attention Age Doctrine, the solution is to become a social media “Maven”.A Maven is a trusted authority, like a friend, on the social media websites. As you gain their trust, your audience will return to you over and over again wanting to invest in your advice.Five Steps to Becoming a Social Media MavenSocial Media Maven Step 1: Get in the GameBegin blogging immediately. Create a video explaining how to solve a problem and put it on YouTube, MySpace, and Facebook with links back to your main website. Just those two things alone will establish more Web 2.0 presence than 90% of your competition.Social Media Maven Step 2: Share your passionBuild your Web 2.0 website around your passions. Thirty-two year old Gary Vaynerchuk transformed his wine knowledge to his video blog. It now has thousands of subscribers and does $50 million dollars a year in wine sales.Social Media Maven Step 3: Be ControversialYour audience will remember you more when you challenge the status quo. Controversy sells. Think like the tabloids and the local news channels here. For example, Web 2.0 Business Coach Rich Schefren challenges traditional marketing wisdom in each release of his Attention Age Doctrine special reports atwww.attentionage.net/doctrine.Social Media Maven Step 4: Create World Class ContentYou will drive repeat traffic to your website by offering top notch “how to” information. Gary’s wine tastings are highly educational on the benefits of wine, how to cook with wine, and how to choose a wine for your special occasion. Rich’s reports teach Web 2.0 marketing principles.Remember, as soon as your audience feels that you are “pitching” them, you’ve lost them. So provide content not advertising.Social Media Maven Step 5: Engage in the ConversationWeb 2.0 is a dialogue not a monologue. Internet businesses profit more when they observe and listen to their communities first before they broadcast their messages. Savvy mavens such as Gary and Rich encourage their audience to ask questions. The answers to these questions then become part of their user-generated content.How Marketing in a Web 2.0 Social Media Environment Is Exciting.Visualize it like a big radio or television station or movie screen where you’re the star. You’re building a fan base so you need to entertain, inform, and deliver consistently for your audience.You have more publishing power at your fingertips right now than at any time in history.So use it.Share your passions.Reveal your trials and tribulationsTell your story.And, watch how quickly your audience builds.

Social Networks For Business – 7 Tips and Tricks March 14, 2008

Social Networks For Business – 7 Tips and TricksMany people don’t have time to use social networks. They are too busy with emails, phone calls and face to face meetings, in order to get engaged – whether it’s work or fun. This is a major issue for most people who are trying to use social media tools as part of their business tool box.I’ve went through several phases in my social media activities, starting with first limited steps in social networks such as LinkedIn, moving to the interactive Facebook, and using the hyper-interactive Twitter. Over time I found that I am investing a lot in communicating, on the expense of being the most effective and efficient in my communication and work. One of the causes of this phenomena is the overload social networks and tools are putting on all of us, with multiple updates and feeds.Also, the amount of my connections affects my communication pattern as I wrote in the past. Therefore, in the recent months I’ve changed my communication pattern to better fit my needs, and support my other activities.However, social networks and social media in general provide great business benefits if handled correctly.In a business, I don’t believe that conversation is the most important thing. Efficiency and effectiveness are the goals of every business, in order to successfully compete in the market.How can you balance between the social media noise, and the hidden value in its tools?Here are my tips on how to do that. Would love to hear on how you are doing it:If you are the ADD type, already involved in more networks then you can handle:Separate leisure and work – you know that time in day when you are not focused? Sometimes you’ll go to Facebook and check what’s going on there, get into a conversation, read some notes, and just go around the network. It is ok – if you decided that you are willing to invest your free time in having fun in Facebook. Would you do something else that is fun right now, not online, if you had the chance? If the answer is yes, then everything is ok. If the answer is no – read a blog or a newspaper to relax your brain. Social networks, especially Facebook and Twitter, can suck you in and make you loose sense of time. And you don’t want that in on working hours.Aggregate feeds from various social networks using Friendfeed or Spokeo – these tools aggregate activities of your connections from different networks in one page. It is very useful, and helps you not only keep in touch with your friends and business contacts, but also find new ones.Kick out spammers from your network – yes, sounds logical, but it is not necessarily done in a consistent manner. When someone sends me 6 useless Facebook apps – it is time to say goodbye. After that, there is less communication overload with stupid interactions.Understand when you want to communicate and when you want to do something else – A good friend of mine told me once, when I was all over Facebook, that there is a limit to the amount of interaction one wants to be involved in. At the time I thought he was dead wrong, but now I see that it is true. I’d like to interact only part of my day, and in many cases I need the ability to concentrate and reach a goal. Twitter, IM, and Facebook should be closed at these times unless they are used for the same task.If you are not hooked yet, but understand there is a value in social networks for your work, and you want to be effective and efficient in using them:Maintain your social network periodically – once a month, upload your contacts to Linkedin or Facebook and invite relevant people to your circle of contacts. discipline is the secret. You can reduce the effort required by uploading all your contacts to gmail or yahoo mail, and let the networks retrieve the information from there. It takes less time than uploading your address book to each platform separately.Embed social networks activity in your work day:Update your online address back immediately after you return from a conference. Connect to the guys you met as soon as you can. Size and quality of your networks correlates with the value you will drive from it. Foster it.Add your social networks to your bookmarks toolbar so they will be easily accessible. The more you use them, the more they value you get from it.Use social networks as source of information – whenever you have a question, don’t just ask google. Ask your network as well. You will be amazed how much high quality information lies in Linkedin and Facebook.Spend 10-20 minutes of your work day for social networks updates. Go through Linkedin, Facebook, and Twitter every morning to see what’s new and who is talking about what. I am doing it with my morning coffee. Friendfeed and Spokeo can also come handy, but go through the sites themselves once in a while.Increase your networks’ value – connect to key people in the industry, thought leaders, experts, key decision makers and so on. The value of network is driven from the aggregated quality of its members, and not only by its size. Invest 30 minutes a week in looking for key people in your network and connect with them. It is worth it.All those tips are completely irrelevant if you just want to chat with friends. But if you are business oriented user, I hope it would help you to get more value from time spent these social networks.

Why leverage Myspace and Blogging Communities? February 29, 2008

Why leverage MySpace and Blogging Communities?Because of the sheer number of online communities and the number of active users.  Every possible demographic is represented on the social networks on the Internet. Your customers are on MySpace right now.Having a powerful MySpace presence is one of the most effective ways to engage your audience on the Internet. Social Media Optimization is your opportunity to embed yourself, your business, your brand, or your product into the community of people who are most likely to purchase from you.Interchanges uses highly effective segmenting technology to target and attract specific types of people to invite to become a “friend”.  We call this “Social Droving”. Interchanges’ Social Marketing teams will run a highly effective campaign for your organization….all you need to do is make us your first “friend” and we will do the rest. For More Info:www.Interchanges.com 

New Media Overview February 29, 2008

Interchanges.com Helping The Companies Shift To New Media  New Media Marketing is a relatively new concept utilized by businesses developing online communities which allow current and potential customers to congregate and discuss a particular brand, product or service. In most cases, the online communities include mechanisms such as blogs, podcasts, videos, message boards, and product reviews, all of which contribute to a transparent forum to post praises, criticisms, questions, and suggestions.  Also included in the realm of new media is Mobile Marketing.  Mobile phone users (xx million in the US alone) opt-in to a short-code using a certain keyword (TEXT VW to 59925) and once they are opted-in, they will receive messages tailored around the campaign to learn more about the product or service.  Other unique and highly effective campaigns can be developed as well.  One of the primary reasons to use New Media Marketing is because traditional advertising is losing its influence on consumers. This premise is backed by statistical evidence demonstrating a growing trend of consumers making purchasing decisions from Internet research and referrals. Most people agree that feedback and reviews from like-minded peers hold more weight than corporate marketing messages dispersed through traditional television, radio, direct mail, or newspaper advertising.  Combining Social Media Optimization and Mobile Marketing can have huge impacts on delivering messages to your targeted demographics.Although businesses would be exposing certain weaknesses to the marketplace by allowing individuals, or even competitors, to post critical comments, responding with an honest and transparent answer designed around solving the issue at hand may mitigate potential risks. Marketing Experiments has conducted research on the topic of transparent marketing. For More Info:www.Interchanges.com 

Dave Gross Giving Interchanges.com Props February 29, 2008

To whom it may concern: 

Interchanges.com developed our website during the spring of 2003.  It went live in mid to late April 2003.  During the time of development and since that time, Interchanges.com has consistently exceeded all of our expectations in their professionalism, work ethic, quality of work and in every other aspect of our business relationship with them. 

Since the implementation of our website (which prior to 2003 was nothing more than a single page which had our name, address, phone and fax number) we have consistently received requests for new business from companies, and even countries where we had none before. From the launching of our site to the end of 2003 we received $59,350.40 in new business and we have already exceeded $46,600.00 in sales since January 1, 2004 to date in business which came exclusively from our website. 

We receive calls and emails on a daily basis from new contacts who found us via our website on the Internet.  Just in the past week we have had over $12,000.00 in new sales from contacts, which began by finding us on the Internet.

We remain continually impressed by the growth to our business by this avenue. We are convinced that the quality of work done by Interchanges.com is an instrumental reason that people continually contact us by finding our website. In fact, we are so impressed that we have recently contracted with Chris Patterson to expand our website to include online pricing and sales capabilities.  I could not give any higher recommendation than that deserved by the team at Interchanges.com for their exceptional work.

Dave Gross

Website and Network Administrator

DWG, Inc.

3701-5 Saint Johns Industrial Pkwy W

Jacksonville FL  32246

PH: 904-646-5876

FX: 904-646-3111

Website: http://www.dwgi.net

Email: Info@dwgi.net

Understanding The Little Giant in MySpace…. YOU! January 28, 2008

Understanding The Little Giant in Myspace…. You!

With tens of millions of users (but probably not the purported 100 million), MySpace.com is a force to be reckoned with. Especially when you consider that MySpace apparently drives more traffic to online retailers than MSN Search, according to some recent Hitwise data.

But MySpace is hard for many of us adults to get our heads around. It just doesn’t seem logical: How does it hold the interest of so many young people with short attention spans, despite the fact that the design/usability is so atrocious, the Web page creation platform is so frustratingly restrictive, and it’s chock full of so many profiles that are obviously fake, spam, duplicated, or abandoned?

“Um, it’s about looking cool, fitting in, and hanging out, Duh!” one might imagine a teen MySpace user answering.

Then where do us adults feature in this? Besides offering a tempting place for stalkers and voyeurs to hang out and follow the daily lives of the teenagers who haven’t made their profiles private (can you say “Creepy!”?), MySpace is host to concerned parents trying to keep tabs on their kids, college students, obsessed sports fans, and realtors. In other words, the Average Joe or Jane. MySpace is a real slice of humanity.

Of course within the MySpace ecosystem exist marketers. But most are clueless. One would expect sophisticated MySpace presences from big brand marketers. However, that is usually not the case. And generally those that are present, like Blockbuster UK, 7Eleven, and Meijer, lack key ingredients for MySpace success—like an impressive number of “Friends.”

What is probably horrifying to these brand marketers is that employees and customers think nothing of developing a MySpace presence on behalf of the company—one that may not be very flattering. Consider, for example, these unofficial MySpace pages for Wal-Mart, K-Mart, and Target. Undoubtedly, this leads to customer confusion, because it can be difficult to ascertain the author of a MySpace profile. And such unauthorized pages can tarnish the company’s reputation, depending on their content.

 Before you leap in to MySpace as a marketer, you’d best understand it. Because if you don’t, the MySpace community can turn on you the moment you make your first misstep. Just like bloggers can. (Note: many MySpace users are bloggers too. MySpace supports blogging within its platform.) The cardinal rule in MySpace is the same one as in the blogosphere: Keep it real.

Still, despite the hazards, MySpace offers a lot promise as a venue for marketers to hawk their wares. MySpace allows you to interject yourself into existing networks of trust-based relationships and to bond with your visitors in ways not possible elsewhere on the Web. And you can interact with huge numbers of adults, not just teenagers. Surprisingly, more than half of MySpace visitors are age 35 or older, and more than two-thirds are age 25 or older, according to comScore Media Metrix.

Do you have what it takes to crack MySpace? The most unlikely of marketers seem to have it—bars, bands, and quirky dot-coms. One of my favorite examples of MySpace marketing is Project Red. Not only is Project Red a world-changing organization on a mission to defeat AIDS in Africa, its MySpace profile is attractive and engaging.

Other noteworthy examples come from Apple Computer, the Brooklyn Museum, Drumz Clothing, the Orlando Magic, the movie studio that produced Superman Returns, the comedy character Borat, and the musical artist “Weird Al” Yankovic.
A couple of these I’ve been tracking for several months, watching the size of their networks expand. First, consider Apple Computer. Its various flavors of iPod Nano have a place on MySpace, e.g. Pink Nano, which is enjoying a meteoric rise in Friend status. I started tracking Pink Nano on October 15, when it had 1,500 MySpace friends. A week later, on October 22, it had climbed to 7,449 friends. On October 27, it was up to 37,070 friends. Now, on December 3, as I write this article, it has reached 55,776. Not a bad marketing job, Apple!

Now consider the “comeback king” of musical parody—”Weird Al” Yankovic. He’s using social media quite successfully to help breathe new life into his 27-year-long music career—thanks, in no small part, to YouTube and MySpace. Yankovic told Reuters/Billboard in a recent interview that he had accumulated 155,000 MySpace friends since he joined the site in July—all of which he had personally added. He stated, “I used to be a little pickier. Now I just kind of click as fast as I can.” (I can only imagine the Repetitive Stress Injury from that much clicking!) Here’s the kicker: a week after this article came out, he was already up to 219,033 friends! Another seven days later, and Weird Al had gained another 24,000 MySpace friends (up to 243,221). Now, on December 3, it’s at 325,614!

One small company that has enjoyed a degree of success in terms of traffic and sales through MySpace is the online jewelry retailer Pugster. Its mascot, a pug dog named Pinky, is the subject of the MySpace profile—a clever move, as it puts a disarming “face” to the company. The firm built up its MySpace page to a very respectable 8,053 friends.

 Here are some secrets of my success:

It’s easy to get overwhelmed with the sheer numbers on MySpace—and important to try to focus on marketing to the “right” group for your product or service — otherwise you’ll be spending a LOT of time on people who will never be interested in you.But, on the other hand, when starting off, you need to get Friends. It’s kind of a bragging right on MySpace. If you have too few friends, it’ll be tough to get the good ones—the ones who will end up buying from you. So, before you go after those, get a few hundred “bad” friends—bands are the easiest. They’ll give you a respectable number on your Friends list, and will leave comments on your page—giving a little realism boost to your profile—making the addition of friends of the “good” type that much easier.Where else could we find a place to actually build relationships with people—who may or may not have heard of us before. We spend time daily emailing people, and guess what, they email back. It becomes the ultimate soft-sell tool.Have patience. Without a huge brand presence, don’t expect to turn profits. The only investment is your time. As long as you regularly give people something interesting—blogs, music, and other tidbits that AREN’T related to your business—then you’ll develop enough trust for them to be interested in what you DO sell.

Keep it personal—talk with the people as if you’d email a new friend. Say “Hi,” get to know them, and they’ll want to get to know you. If you try to sell, sell, sell, you’ll have a hard time earning respect on MySpace.

As far as layouts, there are a few “schools of thought”—one says make it fancy and high end, but the other, and seemingly more successful one, says simplicity is best. Since people are browsing through so many profiles with the same layout, they look for certain features in certain places. If you move too many things around, you’ll frustrate your visitors and they’ll leave. Make it intuitive and easy, just like a good e-commerce site.

If there’s anything a “seasoned” MySpace user hates it is a slow page. The MySpace site has loads of slow loaders. You may get friends with a lot of stuff on your page, but they won’t actually spend the time to interact with you.

Written By:

Shawn A. Welk

New Media Director

Interchanges.com

MySpace.com/Interchanges