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News & analysis on digital marketing & analytics
Online April Fools Jokes
A few April Fools Jokes I have noticed around the web this morning.
SlideShare
Like many others, I received the following message from the SlideShare team this morning.
We've noticed that your slideshow on SlideShare has been getting a LOT of views in the last 24 hours. Great job … you must be doing something right. 
Why don't you tweet or blog this? Use the hashtag #bestofslideshare so we can track the conversation.
Thrilled by this news I logged into my account to see that indeed my slideshow appeared to have thousands of views!
Good one SlideShare! Looks like you had everyone fooled!
While checking my Gmail this morning I noticed the new Gmail Autopilot feature.
This humorous feature is:
The easiest email could possibly be.
As more and more everyday communication takes place over email,
lots of people have complained about how hard it is to read and
respond to every message. This is because they actually read and respond to all their messages.
Google even provided some sample autopilot responses that you could expect with Gmail Autopilot.
Columbus Underground
Columbus Underground announced they will be launching a magazine for young professionals.
We are proud to announce that Columbus Underground will soon be launching a brand new monthly magazine called Columbus Underground Magazine (or CUM for short) aimed at the growing Young Professional demographic .
YouTube
Have you checked out YouTube's new layout? Everything is upside-down! YouTube is even offering some tips for viewing the new layout, including turn your monitor upside down, tilt your head to the side and move to Australia.
Wikipedia
The stories on Wikipedia's front page are pretty hilarious right now!
The Museum of Bad Art (MOBA) is a world-renowned institution dedicated to showcasing the finest art acquired from Boston-area
refuse. The museum started in a pile of trash in 1994, in a
serendipitous moment when an antiques dealer came across a painting of
astonishing power and compositional incompetence that had been
tragically discarded.
Have you seen any other April Fools jokes this morning? Share them!
'Wedded Marketing' to Offer a Fresh Perspective on Online Romance
Internet
marriage explodes into the world of social media; tweeting wedding
proposals, matrimonial ceremonies on SecondLife and live blogging at
receptions are just a few of the services the Columbus, Ohio internet
marketing firm plans to offer with its new online romance division.
From online marketing to online romance:
what started out as an innocent typo has evolved into one of the most
remarkable business model transformations in recent memory. Webbed
Marketing, the Columbus, Ohio based Internet marketing firm, noticed
that some of its clients often mistakenly referred to the company as
"Wedded" Marketing. While the minor snafu was at first a source of
laughs for the growing firm, the joke eventually developed into a
serious business proposal. William Balderaz, co-partner and president
of the company, decided that a move into the online marriage
arena would be an interesting application of his status as a newly
ordained minister – and a test of his young company's mantle.
"The idea with Wedded Marketing is that I wanted to see if we could
leverage our company's social media prowess to assist with an area of
growing social concern," said Balderaz, who once leveraged his
state-appointed powers to establish a sacred union between a Cockapoo
and an empty bag of Doritos. "Marriage rates are down in the US and the
people who do wed are not staying together long; nearly half of all
marriages end up in divorce court. We want to use our ability to
harness the power of the Internet in order to help people stay happy
together."
More realistically, Wedded Marketing promises to at least make doomed marriages more affordable for today's hip young couples. Internet marriage
can be a much more affordable option than the traditional route when
couples take advantage of some of the resources that Wedded Marketing
is planning to offer. Social media in particular promises to play a
significant role in Wedded Marketing's Internet wedding planning
strategy. With the depth of many individual's social networks
outreaching the number of people they actually know in real life, it is
a surprise that someone hadn't thought of this sooner.
"We hope to bring the whole blessed sacrament into the 21st
century," continued Balderaz. "Imagine being able to escape the
awkwardness of writing and handing out personalized invitations to the
folks at the office. With Wedded Marketing you can get the word out
about your special day by sending one mass message to all of your
connections and followers."
The Internet marriage services to be provided by Wedded Marketing include:
- Online invitations and "save the date" reminders, via Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn networks
- Ceremonies that take place online in Wedded Marketing's exclusive white gazebo in SecondLife
- Live blogging and live tweets during the reception
- Virtual alcohol
- Drastically reduced pricing on wedding pictures and free online hosting via Flickr
Additionally, Wedded Marketing plans to venture into the other areas of the online
romance market, including helping nervous 20-somethings propose through
romantic tweets.
About Wedded Marketing
Wedded Marketing is a team of experts in
the Internet marriage field. Their goal is to grow relationships
through the application of Internet resources. The firm specializes in
online wedding ceremonies and wedding planning, as well as virtual
receptions and wedding photos. Visit www.webbedmarketing.com/weddedmarketing.html for more information.
Danny Sullivan Leverages Twitter for Search Q&A
Kudos to Danny Sullivan on a nice use of Twitter with a round robin Q&A on all things search.
It’s another indication of the value of Twitter – not just his knowledge but the conversation. Now the experience has a home for others to scan.
The practical advice may not blow everyone away, but it certainly affirms search marketing best practices and serves as a reminder for what people should be doing to help companies and clients.
Webbed Marketing University Update
Due to a high demand, we have created a new format for Webbed Marketing University (WMU). Partnering with Hondros College in Westerville, OH, WMU will now be offering a 2-day learning seminar. The seminar will be held at Hondros College, 4140 Executive Parkway Westerville, OH 43081.
Day 1 will be our SEO 101 course (http://www.webbedmarketing.com/SEO101.html), while day 2 will consist of advanced SEO techniques (http://www.webbedmarketing.com/AdvancedSEO.html). The cost for the seminar is $299 per day or $499 for both days. Of course, both days of the seminar can be attended online at a reduced cost ($199 for one day or $399 for both).
Bill Balderaz and Amy Marshall, co-partners of Webbed Marketing, will be conducting the classes.
To register today, please visit:
For more information, please email us at admissions@webbedmarketing.com or call us at 866-554-3892.
We hope to see you there!
MoJoe Lounge Welcomes Columbus Tech Community
The Columbus tech community is clearly a popular and increasingly growing group of influencers in our area. We read their intriguing, often comical, blog posts on a regular basis and we follow their Twitter handle. By doing this, we develop a personal connection to our fellow Columbus residents; however, when do we ever get to visit in person?
MoJoe Lounge, in the Short North, hosted an event Wednesday night for the “Who’s Who” of our local tech community. Guests enjoyed conversation, margaritas and excellent food.
The Lounge was an ideal venue for an event like as this. It has a very trendy decor and the brick fireplace in the back corner gives the restaurant a cozy feel. Plus, you can’t beat free Wi-Fi, great drinks and a free taco bar. The margaritas were excellent, and the tech community tried three flavors before making a vote on what will be MoJoe’s “featured” margarita. All were delicious, but the Habeñero Lime flavor ended up taking the win.
President of Stauff’s Coffee Mark Swanson welcomed the local guests to MoJoe with a few words. He spoke about Cup o Joe’s fair trade coffee, the company’s commitment to the community and the recent partnership with Local Matters, a non-profit organization in Columbus.
Local Matters, is focused on supply of and demand for fresh, local foods and increasing access for everyone in central Ohio. The president of Local Matters, Mike Jones, spoke to the group at MoJoe Lounge and announced Cup o Joe and MoJoe Lounge as the first corporate sponsors of Local Matters. Jones expressed his excitement for this partnership and discussed a new Local Matters business in the Short North selling all local products.
“We focus on a farm support program to connect with local farmers and encourage them to grow local products. Farmers are happy to do this, but need to know there is a market for it,” Jones said. “So, we are easing that concern by opening this business in the North Market called ‘Greener Grocery.’”
Overall, the evening was an excellent opportunity for the tech community to mingle, enjoy a few drinks and great food, and learn a little more about our community. It seems like a lot of the guests will be heading back to MoJoe Lounge next Wednesday for the free Wednesday taco bar at MoJoe during happy hour, with the purchase of a drink.
Look forward to seeing you there!
Columbus, Ohio Internet Marketing Company Partners with Local College to Offer SEO Classes
Webbed Marketing, a leading SEO firm in the Midwest, announced that it will be partnering with Hondros College to offer a two day seminar that will cover search engine optimization techniques.
Central Ohio Internet marketing company, Webbed Marketing, announced that it will be holding a two day web marketing seminar at Hondros College in April. The seminar will focus on search engine optimization at an introductory level, in addition to covering some of the more advanced SEO techniques. Participants can choose to attend one or both days of the seminar. Registration is currently open for the two day event, which will take place on April 21st and 22nd, 2009 from 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. EST.
The seminar will be a key initial step for Webbed Marketing University – the unique online marketing classroom that launched earlier this year. WMU already offers a host of Internet marketing courses through an à la carte system, from SEO and SEM, to online public relations and social media marketing. The idea to conduct a series of SEO classes in a classroom-style setting stemmed from a large number of requests from WMU participants. They wanted the quality Internet marketing training that the experts from Webbed Marketing are able to provide, in addition to the credibility gained from an accredited academic institution.
“The partnership between Webbed Marketing University and Hondros College was created in order to provide pragmatic Internet marketing training,” said Bill Balderaz, founder of Webbed Marketing. “By joining with Hondros, WMU will be able to provide quality online marketing courses that can be directly applied to an existing academic plan. We decided to offer the SEO courses in a traditional classroom-style setting because these courses are in the highest demand and we want to cater to as many different learning styles as possible.”
“Our marketplace, which has a large segment of entrepreneurs and small business owners, has been looking for help with their web marketing,” Vice President of Hondros College Dave Evangelisti said. “We look forward to working with Webbed Marketing to help our customers reach their goals through improved search engine marketing. The tools and techniques learned in these courses should allow our students to dramatically improve their web presence.”
The first day of the seminar will cover SEO 101: all the basics to familiarize people with search engine optimization from a marketing perspective. The SEO 101 classes are a must for students who have little or no online marketing experience. The second day of the seminar will cover more advanced SEO techniques, including semantic search, algorithm changes and PageRank sculpting.
Bill Balderaz and Amy Marshall of Webbed Marketing will be conducting the various SEO classes for the seminar. There will be scheduled intermissions, and both breakfast and lunch will be provided by Hondros College. Recorded versions of selected sessions will be available following the seminar. For more information, including pricing information and registration, please visit www.webbedmarketinguniversity.com or www.hondros.edu/seo.
About Webbed Marketing
Webbed Marketing is a team of experts in the Internet marketing field. Their goal is to grow businesses through the application of Internet resources. The firm specializes in search engine optimization and marketing, as well as viral marketing services, word of mouth and buzz measurement and social media strategies. Visit www.webbedmarketing.com for more information.
About Hondros College
For more than 40 years, Westerville, Ohio-based Hondros College has been helping individuals seeking to find, enter and succeed in a new career. Fully accredited by the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools, the career college specializes in occupations that offer stability, flexibility, independence and financial reward. Its nine Ohio locations provide the highly focused education needed to succeed in a broad range of careers in real estate, appraisal, home inspection, mortgage, insurance, financial services and nursing. Hondros College also offers a nationally-recognized curriculum of online classes in many disciplines. Visit http://www.hondros.edu for more information.
The Times, They Are A Changin'
After attending the Ohio Web Leaders (OWL) breakfast earlier this week, I started thinking about the concept of how Social Media is truly changing our world. I know this is not a new concept to those of you familiar with social media, but for those of you new to it or not totally convinced yet, here are some things to think about.
- News - traffic updates, breaking news, weather updates, stories coming up later that day…we no longer have to wait for the evening news or the newspaper to be delivered. We have all of these things at our fingertips. Literally!
- Job Search – whether you are an employer or a person in search of a job, wake up and smell the coffee! Social Media is certainly the latest trend in employment and has replaced much of the old traditional resume formatting and printing on nice paper as well as reading the classifieds on Sunday to see what new jobs are out there.
- Restaurant Reservations & Updates – never before have we had so much information about restaurants and bars available to us in real time. From that day's special to the beer just being tapped to making your reservations, tools like Twitter and Facebook have it all covered.
- Networking – someone mentioned at the OWL breakfast that Twitter is a way to start a conversation and get to know someone before you actually meet them. Interesting concept, huh? Getting to know someone before you meet them? It sure works though. You can walk into any networking event where you have never met anyone face to face and talk to many folks you have "already met". Oh yea, and whoever would have thought I would be introducing myself as "@yrayburn" and people would really know what I meant!
- Competitive Research – never has it been easier to know what your competitors are up to. Become a fan on Facebook and follow them on Twitter. Sooner or later you will find out some good info that you otherwise never would have known.
- Hobbies – I can connect with other runners, folks who like to cook and those who simply like to eat!
- Sports – Our own Columbus Blue Jackets, Ohio State Buckeyes, Cleveland Browns, Cavs and Indians…info on ALL of them via Facebook and Twitter. More groups "than you can shake a stick at" as my Mom would say. (Never was sure what she meant by that). And as I was typing this, I just got updated on March Madness scores via Twitter.
- Travel – From lowest airfare to car rental to AAA….never been easier to get travel info. Local or abroad.
- Shopping – One of my all time favorite hobbies (hmm, guess I could have listed this in Number 8 as well!)! The best deals and coupons are sent right to me…I don't even have to go to their website. I can even get the "deal of the day" from Amazon!
- Replaced the water cooler?? – In the presentation at OWL, Katie McCartney said that Twitter is "the world's biggest water cooler". I think there is certainly some truth to that. Now not only can I rehash last nights game with my co-workers, I can rehash it with all my Tweeple and Facebook Friends.
As a final thought, just like we couldn't have imagined the changes that have come about in the Social Media world over the last 5 years, we can't imagine what it will be like 5 years from now. As a matter of fact, my 19 year old niece (freshman at Ohio State) who is trying to figure out what she wants to be when she grows up, asked me if I knew I wanted to do what I am doing now when I was in college. I simply said, "Honey, when I was in college, the job I have now didn't even exist!"
We are in for an exciting ride so keep your arms and hands inside at all times!
Category: Social Media
Internet Marketing Agency Announces "Google Hates My Web Site" Winner
Columbus, Ohio based Webbed Marketing announces winner of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) makeover contest.
Webbed Marketing, a social media marketing and search engine optimization company in Central Ohio, hosted a contest to find the least search engine friendly Web site. The top prize to the winning site is a one week SEO makeover.
Dozens of sites were reviewed, and the makeover goes to the Delaware
County Emergency Medical Services Web site at www.delcoems.org.
“We were looking to find the one Web site that is snubbed, denied and
shunned by Google. We wanted a site with no site maps, no meta data, no
links, no pages indexed, no keywords and no chance of driving a bit of
traffic from search engines,” said Amy Marshall, Chief Operating
Officer of Webbed Marketing. “The idea was to give the winning
organization an opportunity to improve its SEO for free by sending our
SWAT team of SEO experts in to the site for an entire week of changes, and at the end of that week, deriving some search engine love.”
The Delaware EMS team is proud to be the second largest provider of
emergency medical services in central Ohio, and maintains a useful site
that offers information on classes, like CPR, statistics on EMS, and
vehicle and equipment photos. With so much information going unnoticed,
Delaware EMS is eager for the improvements that will come with this SEO
makeover.
“We’re kind of an unusual service; generally, when someone dials 911,
the fire department arrives on the scene. However, in the bulk of
Delaware County, we provide that service,” Chief Rob Farmer, director
of EMS said. “So, I’m excited to see where this SEO makeover takes us,
and we are hoping it will increase public awareness in Delaware by
driving people to our site.”
Webbed Marketing will be taking over the site in the coming weeks, so
be sure to Google Delaware EMS and see the success for yourself.
About Webbed Marketing
Webbed Marketing
is a team of experts in the Internet marketing field. Their goal is to
grow businesses through the application of Internet resources. The firm
specializes in search engine optimization and marketing, as well as
viral marketing services, word of mouth and buzz measurement and social
media strategies. Visit www.webbedmarketing.com for more information.
Webbed Webinar: Webbed Marketing Approved Twitter Tools and Applications
So we have convinced you to start using Twitter. Now, learn how to use it like a pro. We will share some of our favorite platforms, tips, tricks and add-ons that will help you fit Twitter into your already busy schedule. Can’t decide between TweetDeck, Twhirl, TwitterFox and Twitterrific? See our list of ten great twitter tools and applications, how to get the most out of them, why we use them and how they will improve your Twitter experience.
Need Leads? Ask for MOM!
On March 24-25th, Fathom will be exhibiting at the Search Engine Strategies (SES) Conference & Expo 2009 in New York City.
If you see someone wearing a button reading “Need Leads? Ask for MOM – Booth #1016″, you’ll know it is a representative from Fathom. Come visit our booth to learn about Multilateral Online Marketing, or “MOM”, as we like to call it. We will be showcasing our Battle Plan video and will have representatives on hand to answer questions about your online marketing needs.
Fathom Chosen to Explain Keyword Selection and Search Engine Optimization at National SEM Conference
Michael Murray – vice president of online marketing for Fathom – will join a panel March 25 at the Search Engine Strategies Conference & Expo in New York City, detailing the critical factors marketers must consider when selecting keywords.
