ADS Financial Services Studio Demo II

by joemagennis on March 11, 2010

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This post is a demonstration of the ability to produce rich media content, for distribution to a potentially world wide audience.  Subscribers can access this podcast via an iTunes subscription, embedded in an RSS feed or via an email link. Notifications that the podcast has been produced can be automatically broadcast via social networks as well.

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ADS Financial Studio Demo

by joemagennis on March 5, 2010

 
icon for podpress  Standard Podcast [4:39m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This post is a demonstration of the ability to produce rich media content, for distribution to a potentially world wide audience.  Subscribers can access this podcast via an iTunes subscription, embedded in an RSS feed or via an email link. Notifications that the podcast has been produced can be automatically broadcast via social networks as well.

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Yes, the Oakland Cemetery Tweets. And Does it Well!

by joemagennis on March 5, 2010

 
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I have been co-hosting a weekly podcast called The Bella Buzz with the CEO of Bella Web Design, Desiree Scales.  We have good conversations about topics related to online marketing.  Thought I would also post the programs here for the Overflow audience.  This is episode 41.

On this week’s episode Desiree speaks from the cockpit of The Bella Beetle, as we welcome Chad Elkins, the voice behind the social media strategy of the Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta. He first came to our attention through a writeup on the blog Not Easy To Forget from its author James Ball.

For those who are not familiar with this Atlanta landmark, Oakland Cemetery is one of the oldest cemeteries and one of the largest green spaces in the City of Atlanta, and it is on the National Register of Historic Places. Famous “residents” include Bobby Jones the golfer, Margaret Mitchell the author, Maynard Jackson the former Mayor of Atlanta, and Joseph Jacobs who was the proprietor of the soda fountain where Coca-Cola was first served in 1886.

Cemetery Night Skyline Chad brings a great perspective to his use of social media in attracting new visitors to the cemetery, and believes that his use of a Twitter account has reached a different demographic than the traditional destination / attraction marketing that tourism venues typically enact.

The content that Chad likes to generate through his social media efforts include the same types of things that any business should consider distributing.  Don’t let the fact that he is interacting on behalf of a cemetery fool you!  He is looking to engage in conversations about events and answer customer service type questions, plus he can include some interesting history that makes his tweet stream an interesting read.  Chad believes that it helps to share information about other things that are happening around the City of Atlanta so that it incorporates Oakland Cemetery as part of the “eco-system” of venues.

Successes include driving measurable traffic to the web site at Oakland Cemetery.com, as well as seeing additional friends and fans attend their events such as the Run Like Hell 5K, Halloween Tours, and Sunday in the Park. All of their events had record attendance which can be attributed to these efforts.  It also pays off from a volunteer recruitment standpoint (and must also be applied to employee recruitment in more traditional business).

Chad suggests that the Atlanta Tourism community look into something like the new location based application Four Square. Another service of this same ilk is Gowalla.

The success that Chad has witnessed on behalf of the Oakland Cemetery demonstrates a couple of key points that we stress on the Bella Buzz podcast, it can be accomplished no matter what the business is. If a cemetery can find a voice in social media, anything can have a voice.  Also, Chad works on a volunteer basis so it is not an all consuming time commitment requirement.

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A Lost Opportunity for Some, A Lesson for All

by joemagennis on February 11, 2010

 
icon for podpress  Standard Podcast [19:33m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I have been co-hosting a weekly podcast called The Bella Buzz with the CEO of Bella Web Design, Desiree Scales.  We have good conversations about topics related to online marketing.  Thought it would be a good time to start replicating the programs here for the Overflow audience.  This is episode 39.

It is a Super Bowl commercial postmortem on this week’s Bella Buzz podcast.  Desiree and Joe break down the effectiveness of the advertising dollars that the big brands spent during Super Bowl XLIV, or should we say lack of effectiveness.

Last year, the expectation was more and more of the big brands would find creative ways to incorporate social networks into their traditional campaigns.  The rating for social media usage by this year’s advertisers is once again a big #FAIL.

We know we tend to see things from within our bubble of online marketing and social media practitioners, but it’s time for the big brands (and more specifically the big brand agencies) to start leveraging the dollars they spend on broadcast advertising by driving customers to interact via social networks.  The opportunity exists right now to engage a customer, capture some of their key contact data and then continue to interact with that customer so that they become a true brand evangelist.  Why are they wasting this media buy!?!

On the podcast, we did dig into a couple of the ads directly to discuss our reactions to them and the first one we reviewed was the Google Ad:

We had both heard that a spot was a possibility, so we were on the lookout for it to appear on the broadcast.  It was a very well done spot which subtly displayed how search is completely embedded in our lives. Google just needs to be careful about how well they present information for web searchers.  They could be accused of “scraping” so much content from web site owners and content producers that the traffic no longer actually clicks to the original site.

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icon for podpress  Email Marketing [22:02m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I have been co-hosting a weekly podcast called The Bella Buzz with the CEO of Bella Web Design, Desiree Scales.  We have good conversations about topics related to online marketing.  Thought it would be a good time to start replicating the programs here for the Overflow audience.  This is episode 37.

It is time to talk about Email Marketing as a topic on The Bella Buzz podcast. We take a look at the rationale for adding this distribution channel into the marketing strategy, some of the vendors who can provide the services, and even have a direct example of what email marketing can achieve.

Email Icon We take a look at email marketing as another form of getting creative content in front of the intended audience.  There have been numerous occasions when we have focused on the ability to consistently generate new pieces of information that will attract an audience, no matter how you might want to define audience ie. customers, new business, fans, etc.. It must be considered that different people will consume content in different ways, so it is imperative for any business to deliver content via numerous channels.  We have discussed content published on a blog where the intention is to attract traffic to the site via SEO and PPC tactics.  We have discussed having blog content available via RSS subscription where a visitor to the site can receive items in a feed reader. Finally, it is time to take a look at how email can be another way of delivering content to a target instead of the target having to navigate to the point of origin.

Email marketing has become more sophisticated as technologies have improved, development costs have been amortized and the CAN-Spam Act has been enacted. Using a software program like Outlook is not sufficient for complying with these regulations, nor does it provide analytics to help make a more successful email campaign.

Bella Web Design uses Constant Contact as the vendor of choice for distributing email newsletters, and recommends them to clients.  In Atlanta they have a local rep, Pamela Adams, who attends conferences and assists in training aspects.

Some of the new features Constant Contact has added to the platform include an events module where invitations, RSVP, and followup are all managed from within the system.  There is also a survey program that can be integrated into the web site and emails through the system.

At Fluid Media we use a service called AWeber.  The dynamic form generation for collecting emails and the send message scheduling features are very attractive features.

One other company that we know of worth considering when researching for the most appropriate vendor is MailChimp.

In case anyone is thinking that email newsletters are yesterday’s method of distribution, many of the “thought leaders” in the online space have reverted back to using email as the preferred format.  Concerns about comment spam, a lack of intimacy with an audience, and inability to generate a dialogue have driven some to take a second look at email efforts.  An email can easily be replied to, allowing for opening a conversation and it can easily be forwarded, helping to spread the information.

Some who have moved towards using email include Jason Calacanis founder of Silicon Alley Reporter, Weblogs, Inc., and Mahalo.com. Chris Brogan author of Trust Agents and Social Media consultant, and Christopher S. Penn co-host of Marketing Over Coffee podcast.

Desiree shares with us a response to the most recent email newsletter that arrived in her inbox as we were recording the podcast! It really brings the point home to our viewers that email marketing can be a very powerful communication tool.

Theme music for The Bella Buzz is Fallen by Digital Chemistry, available for download at the Podsafe Music Network.

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