Techvibes.com Relaunches with New Design

Congratulations to our friends at Techvibes who launched the new design of their website today!

The new design is more user friendly and the content is easier to pick out from the featured members and advertising. I like the new look. 

As mentioned in their email blast,Techvibes was acquired by entrepreneurs Boris Wertz and Geoff Hampson, “with the goal of realigning it as a hyper-local technology news blog and community.”

What are the other improvements of note:

* A complete redesign, cleaner and standards-compliant
* Ability to choose between per-city local content or all-city global content
* RSS feeds for blog posts, blog comments, jobs, and events
* Improved site search
* Consolidated forums into one area
* Google Maps integration

Check out the new design of Techvibes.com

Buying gasoline futures business launches

On April 3, 2006 I wrote a longish post about a crazy idea I had: buying futures of gasoline.

The game of finding lower-priced gas is just a diversion from the pain of having to buy it in the first place. Maybe we kid ourselves that we make out ahead of the game. Maybe we do make out ahead by playing the game. I don’t think that matters, I haven’t seen a lot of gas companies go out of business.

At the same time all the gas companies are trying to find ways to keep customers loyal. They offer a commodity product and try to differentiate it with fancy tech-sounding additives. They have a schizophrenia. They want customers to pay at the pump for convenience, yet they also want customers to come into the store to stock up on chips and pop. But it’s a gas station. People pull in for gas or to use the bathroom. That’s about it. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of opportunity for building the business based on the site.

Now I have an idea for how gas stations can make their customers loyal: selling gas futures. What are gas futures? They’re essentially price speculation in the present on the future price of gas. It’s what commodity traders do all the time. Buy at one price and exercise at another.

Now someone has gone out and done it, Springwise reports. A company called MyGallons (ouch, I guess they’re doing business only in Imperial-measuring countries?) has launched that lets its members buy gas in bulk today at today’s prices, then decrement their account in the future. Sounds close to what I described, but not as interesting and not strategically with the same benefit for gas stations.

Also, the comments on the Springwise post make MyGallons’ reputation look a little smelly, so buyers beware.

So what do you think? Would you pay today to lock in a price for gas that you could redeem tomorrow?

Social Media Marketing & Non-Profits

Marketing Nonprofit Causes on Chronicle of Philanthropy posted Tuesday, May 20, 2008:

Question from Ken D. Grunke, Pillars:
Hi Seth. Would you share your suggestions for how nonprofits should approach the social networking for the first time? I have heard you should be accessing multiple social networking sites and then I have heard that you should only be concentrating on one.

Seth Godin:
The networks are irrelevant. What’s relevant is the network. Who, not how many. Who, not where.

If your organization can only successfully focus on one thing at a time, then do that. But most urgently, make the relationships you build worthwhile. You don’t need 1000 shallow relationships, you don’t need a long list of friends. What you need is deep relationships, people willing to mortgage their house to support you, willing to host a party to support you, willing to devote a vacation to support you. That’s not about volume, nor is it about the site. It’s about how you build relationships that matter.

Seth goes on to talk about how the terms we use for marketing “miss the mark” (pun mine and intended). He says that “target audience” is not the right way to approach marketing, that it’s more about farming and cultivation.

His advice to all non-profits, and this applies to companies as well, is to do the basics: make big promises, deliver.

“Tell stories people want to hear. Create a service worth talking about. Make it easy for others to spread the word. Get permission from people to follow up and then repeat! The basics are what most organizations are missing. Obsessing about this is far more effective than managing the latest fad.”

See Seth Godin’s post on charity auctions and ways to raise awareness and raise money.

Boostrapper’s Bible is free. It’s written by Seth and available at squidoo.com/seth

Seth gives examples of charities that are successfully using marketing techniques:
1. kiva.org: loans that change lives
2. roomtoread.org
3. the fellows program at acumenfund.org

Seth gives some specifics on why Kiva is remarkable:
1. Kiva grows by connecting people in a way that online folks find remarkable. So they blog about it and talk about it and bring in others.
2. Meanwhile, those benefiting from Kiva’s connection also talk about it. So they bring in new benefactors.
3. Since all Kiva does is connect the two, they scale and scale and scale.

The great question that comes out of this question/answer period with Seth is “if someone talks about you, what do they say?”

Are you remarkable? Are you connecting to people 1-to-1 so that they can go and talk 1-to-many?

Back to my presentation in Kelowna to the Chief Marketing Executives: none of these social media marketing tools work unless you’re doing the basics.

Great conversation. Check out: Marketing Nonprofit Causes on Chronicle of Philanthropy

Presentation: Centre for Chief Marketing Executives, Kelowna BC

I was in Kelowna, BC, May 22 and 23 for the Meeting of the Centre for Chief Marketing Executives.

My fellow presenters included:

• Mitch Joel, President, Twist Image
• Bryan Segal, Vice-President, Sales, comScore Inc.
• Jeanne Houweling, Vice-President, Advertising Services, NebuAd

We talked about the growing influence of social networking websites and the implications for Canadian Marketers.

In addition to participating in roundtable discussions, I presented on “Internet and Social Media: Strategies and Tactics”. For the most part, I showed the web sites in a browser window, hence no slides to share with you. But below are my key points.

Introduction
Boxcar Marketing: how can we help your business?

We’re called Boxcar Marketing because we think about online marketing tools as boxcars in a train: you can link together any combination of online marketing tools. When used together in combinations that are appropriate for your campaign, your business, your customer base, they create momentum for your other marketing activities.

One company’s online marketing strategy might include:
Search marketing + Blogging + Email marketing

Someone else might use:
Search marketing + Facebook + Twitter + Flickr

Any combination is possible. My challenge to marketers is to go beyond your current set of online marketing tools.

Most businesses are using:
Email marketing + Websites

Some are using
Search marketing + Email marketing + Websites + Blogs + Facebook + YouTube

But what about these top social media tools:

1. del.icio.us
2. Flickr.com
3. LinkedIn.com
4. Ning.com
5. StumbleUpon.com
6. Twitter.com
7. Upcoming.org
8. Virtual worlds: SecondLife
9. Wikis: pbwiki

~~~ Monique Trottier on Social Media Marketing 101 ~~~

A) Introduction to Social Media Marketing
What is it? Why is it important to you, your business and your customers? What can you do?

Why is Social Media Marketing important?

Because the media landscape has changed. Because customers have changed.

Mass marketing is harder to do effectively because of the fragmentation of attention. Media is fragmented. There are more radio stations, more tv stations, more magazine titles, more books, millions of websites.

There is a proliferation of products, meaning customers have more things to choose from. We have more devices: video games, computers, dvd players, televisions, satellite radios, TiVo, cellphones and PDAs.

With those devices we email, instant message, Google, blog, create videos, podcast. We also Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon, Ning and Digg.

As businesses, we have to care about these things because interruptive marketing is harder and harder to do.

Customers are not listening. They are busy creating content. They are producers.

They are busy recommending and talking about their experiences with products and services. They are reviewers. They are marketers.

Customers are more demanding and have greater expectations about how businesses should interact with them.

It is harder to get customers to come to your site because they are busy doing other things online. We have to go to them.

No online community has ever sat around saying, you know what we need? More marketers.

We have to get better at connecting to our customers online. At joining the conversation. At being more collaborative. At being an active part of a community. At speaking with our human voice, not our marketing & PR voice.

B) A Few Social Media Marketing Tools At A Glance
What is it? What are successful business uses?

Brightkite: http://brightkite.com/

• Location-based social networking. See where your friends are and what they’re up to, in real time. Meet people around you.
• Good for guerrilla marketing, ARGs (artificial reality games), treasure hunts, location-based marketing.

Digg: http://digg.com/

• A place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. Content moves to the top based on user voting.
• Add Digg this Article to your site.

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/
• A social utility that connects you with the people around you.
• Online book clubs. HarperCollins Canada has 855 members who actively discuss new books.

Note on Facebook:
As businesses we have to keep in mind the nature of the communities we are joining. Facebook is about personal networks. It became the phenomenon that it is because it’s simple, it’s fun, it has photos, it has spam-free email, there’s very little advertising. If you want to be active in Facebook, go beyond advertising. Create value-add appllications, like the TripAdvisor map. Create fun games or quizzes or tools that help users socialize.

Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/

• An online photo management and sharing application.
• Example: Nikon Stunning Gallery. Nikon contacted 16 bloggers who would use the new Nikon D80 and post photos to Flickr using the tag “nikonstunninggallery”. Other Flickr users were invited to also tag photos this way in order to be entered into a contest to win a free camera. This type of contest works because the product (a camera) is directly tied to the activities of the community (taking photos).

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/

• An online network of more than 20 million experienced professionals from around the world, representing 150 industries.
• Connect to me on LinkedIn. See my network of connections. Do we know anyone in common? Do you have a question that you’d like me to pose to my network? Looking for an expert in something? Maybe I can link you up to someone in my network.

Ning: http://www.ning.com/

• Create, customize, and share your own Social Network for free in seconds.
• See if members of your industry have already started social networks on Ning. Then join.
• Example: HotelNetwork.Ning.com is a forum for hotel owners, operators, and industry folks. “A wide range of topics are covered from a macro level such as the state of the industry to the property level with development opportunities, best practices, etc.”

PRWeb: http://www.prweb.com/

• Online news and press release distribution service used by more than 40,000 organizations of all sizes to increase the visibility of their news, improve their search engine rankings and drive traffic to their Web site. Watch the CommonCraft video on how PRWeb works.
• Example: See how 3M uses PRWeb.

Twitter: http://twitter.com/
• A service for friends, family, and co-workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?

Note about Twitter: I love Twitter because it is real-time conversation, it’s easy, it’s mobile (I can send and receive Tweets from my computer and my phone), it’s business and personal. I think Twitter is the tool to watch. The integration, simplicity and mobility of this tool is key to its success.

Examples: Social bookmarketing site Ma.gnolia.com uses Twitter as a customer service and help desk. Instead of emailing the company when service is down or bugs are detected, you can follow the Twitter feed to see if they are aware of the problem and what the fix status is.

Upcoming: http://upcoming.yahoo.com

• A community for discovering and sharing events.
• Add your event. Check for networking events in your area or social media sessions or marketing events such as Case Camp.

YouTube: http://youtube.com/

• Easily upload and share video clips across the Internet through websites, mobile devices, blogs, and email.
• Example: Nick Haley, student at University of Leeds, loved his new iPod Touch so much that he created a commercial for it. Apple saw it. Was impressed. Flew him out to New York to re-create the ad, which now plays on television. Watch Nick Haley’s original Apple iPod Touch ad.

Conclusion
Where are we going? What should we take away from this presentation?

1. We understand that the media landscape has changed.


• Newspaper readership is down.
• Direct mail success is down.
• TV viewership is down.
2. We understand that 80% of offline purchases are a direct result of online window shopping (JC Williams Group).
3. We know that the use of social networks, blogs, websites continues to hold steady or rise.
4. We are going to see more social media tools.
5. There will be greater integration of devices.
6. There will be more conversations online, definitely between customers (and hopefully between customers and companies).
7. There will be more collaboration online.
8. The changes in the media landscape will continue to fragment the market.
9. Smaller, more personal campaigns will have greater success and impact than larger, mass media campaigns.
10. Community, conversation and collaboration will continue to win over controlled, closed networks.
11. As businesses we need to remember to be human. Humans are tool users. Find the social media tools that are right for your campaigns.

About the Centre for Chief Marketing Executives
CCME is an exclusive network for Canada’s chief marketing executives that addresses marketing’s role at the corporate strategy level.

About Speaker Monique Trottier
Monique Trottier is President of Boxcar Marketing, a marketing and communications firm with expertise in online marketing, web design and search marketing. Monique is experienced at bridging social interactions on the web with offline conversation. She’s adept at helping companies understand and respond to how their products or services are represented online. Talk to Monique about in-house consultations, public speaking and presentations.

3 Web Design Mistakes to Avoid

In our new Boxcar Marketing website it was important for James and me to implement as many best practices as possible. We wanted to start with a solid design based on usability. Here are 3 mistakes we often point out to clients and how we avoided them in our design.

Design Mistake #1: The About Us page is an About Me page.
Why is About Me a mistake for a business About page? Although we are pretty pleased with ourselves, the primary purpose of our About page is to establish what we can do for YOU. Too often About pages are nice corporate histories but are not valuable in terms of closing a sale, building trust and establishing credentials that are relevant to potential clients.
Look at our About page for ideas on how you can move beyond About Me and towards About You.

Design Mistake #2: No Author Photo or Company Photo
For companies like ours, where the primary contact is James Sherrett or Monique Trottier, the photo is important. In general, photos of staff or key employees are important for two reasons: photos offer a more personable impression of the company and photos connect the virtual and physical world. For example, people who meet me at a QuickLearn session or see me on a Lab with Leo episode will immediately recognize that they have come to the right website. And in reverse, people who read the Boxcar Marketing blog are more likely to recognize me when we meet in person at a conference or for a meeting.

Design Mistake #3: More-on Links
I posted in September a marketing tip on link text: “Don’t Be a More-On”. In short, more-on refers to hyperlinks that say things like, “Read more” or “Click here.” James and I think these types of links are pretty useless and we aim to write hyperlink text that is persuasive or at minimum tells the visitor where they are going. We are not 100 percent perfect in our link text, but you can see 2 examples in this post. The link directing you to our About page is an example of a persuasive link. It identifies the benefit: Look at our site and borrow ideas for improving your own. If our site was sales focussed, I would enhance that text further by saying something like, See how Boxcar Marketing doubled sales by improving their About copy. Much more persuasive than “Click Here”, right?

The above hyperlink text, a marketing tip on link text: “Don’t Be a More-On”, is the second example. The text gives you an indication of where you will go if you click on that link. On the web, life is too short to click on uncertain links.

What do you think? Do you use your About page differently? Do you have photos? What text do you use for the majority of your links? Share your thoughts.

Have a website? You’re in the media business

One of the most challenging things we have to help clients understand about the web can be summed up in the following statement:

If you have a website you’re in the media business.

True, it may be the micromedia business — small audience, small content archives and no advertisers. But you’re in the media business nonetheless. You communicate through media. And so media-business practices, guidelines and lessons need to apply.

Today I discovered I have good company saying it. John Battelle, author of The Search writes:

Today, I’ll assert, no matter what business you think you’re in – be it making widgets or providing a service, you’re now in the media business, plain and simple. Those that recognize this shift will succeed, those that ignore it will atrophy and eventually become irrelevant.

Now, what do I mean by the media business? Well, let’s start where all good businesses start: with the customer. Your customer’s media habits have changed dramatically in the past ten years. More likely than not, your customers spend nearly 15 hours a week online – it’s where they play, communicate, interact with services, and shop and research major purchases. In short, your customer has developed a major new media habit. The question is: Has your business?

If you want to understand more about how the web affects your business (and your website) please read: you’re in the media business now.

And if you like it, part two lives here: The Successful Business Owner Is a Great Conversationalist.

Canadian Geothermal Energy Association Launches New Website

Congratulations to CanGEA, the Canadian Geothermal Energy Association, who have just launched their new website.

See the new site at http://www.geothermal.ca

CanGEA—the Canadian Geothermal Energy Association—is a non-profit association promoting the development and use of sustainable geothermal energy in Canada. Sustainable energy that works in partnership with nature.

CanGEA members are leaders of the Canadian geothermal energy industry ...

CanGEA joined the Work Industries’ client list in August, and we worked with them to determine the website strategy, the content architecture and design. We used Expression Engine to run the website, and you’ll notice there is a News blog and Events blog, available via RSS, as well as standard pages.

Work Industries would also like to thank Joslin Green of PLAYER Industries, who designed the site, and Eric Barstad of Shadow Box Creative Media Ltd., who handled the programming.

Congratulations again to our friends at CanGEA.