Social Media Marketing Packaged For the “Extreme” Push

I have been watching this trend and thought it was a good blog post. Social media networking started out as a must have for the everyday person. When MySpace was new, you just had to have a page. Then there was Facebook, then LinkedIn. All the sudden there were too many sites to participate in and it became difficult to find out what you should do and where you should invest your time.

I have all these tools in play, but have found that the social networking is just too time consuming to do personally. What I have seen is all the sudden the PR field has jumped with both feet into social media networking and in a stroke of genius now is packaging social networking sites with viral video, and online and offline push with an effort to spin a client into the stratosphere.

Is it workable, yes you bet, these tools in the hands of a PR expert can get the online media exposure that some clients and products can really benefit from. I have one marketeer who is doing just that and just got a call from Microsoft that may turn into a consulting gig to teach their staff about social media.

What I found totally interesting was that the PR world is not just selling the social media aspect but by packaging set up as a part of multiple services they are hiding the cost of the set up needed to get going and getting a  big fee in the process. Truthfully anyone can set up these account for free, but this is where the parallel ends, it is what you do with them that make the difference. Having the account open means nothing, it is about building, linking, and the viral video aspect that makes these programs different and possibly worth the money you will spend.

Although for many of my clients the social networking medium is a novelty and a must have, but what do you do with it once you have it, the PR firm puts social media on steroids. This trend is definitely worth watching. Here’s just one example that I have found recently that is worth reading about.

Just How is Google Making So Much Money From Ads???

This does not let Google raise prices for advertisers. Google does not set the prices manually for ads; rather, advertisers themselves determine prices through an ongoing competitive auction. We have found over years of research that an auction is by far the most efficient way to price search advertising and have no intention of changing that.

Just how is Google making so much money from Google AdWords? Well based on the comment taken from this Google blog post speaking about Google now showing ads on the Yahoo network, it is the advertisers who are soaking themselves not Google.

Yes that’s right, but escalating prices in your own industry in an effort to own the number one spot for your ad by price and not by quality advertisers are jacking up the prices on themselves. According to this quote by Google, we have no one to blame but ourselves!

If you understand the supply and demand curve, this is economics in action. If people decide to pay less, prices will decrease due to a lower demand and the cost per click will drop. What I have found is that in some cases dropping the cost per click will actually generate more impressions and clicks and not significantly hurt the page position in the Google AdWords advertising results. This tactic has crashed some accounts in very competitive large metro markets, but is a workable approach for many. So take a stand and decide to pay less for Google AdWords, what you pay now impacts what Google charges. They didn’t make billions last quarter for nothing!

Adobe’s Kool Kuler Picker – Kuhler

Adobe has a very cool, whoops kuhl, color picker our called Kuhler and it is KUHL!

This flash application allow you to custom pick colors for a new web design, graphic artwork, test new schemes, save them and in general see what works visually before you design it.

I consider this an excellent design aid and will be using it for my new website redesign. You can visit the application here: http://kuler.adobe.com/.

I have tried many color picking applications and this one is by far the most advanced, most interesting, and super easy to use. Even if you are not a designer, I think that you’ll have fun moving the dots around on the color wheel and seeing where the triads fall for the best color scheme. Check it out!

Sign Up For Our Free Video Conference on Effective Blogging

I am doing a free video teleconference this month and have spots left for 14 people. If you are interested in participating to learn how to be an effective blogger on Monday June 23rd at 7:00 PM Eastern Time please send me an email to receive an invitation at webmaster@mccordweb.com.

I will be using an online conference center and Acrobat Connect, you will be able to watch and also phone in to hear the conversation. These are the topics we’ll discuss:

  1. How to find blog content
  2. How to write a great title
  3. What’s the right size for a blog post
  4. What is keyword density and how do you create it
  5. Should you link out from your blog
  6. What to do about comments
  7. Question and Answers

The teleconference is expected to last 30 minutes. Please note that the phone in teleconference number is not toll free. You may choose to just listen or to listen and be in front of your computer to see the slides and information.

I’ll be doing other free seminars in the future, if you have a topic that you would like to have discussed, just drop me a note at info@mccordweb.com and let me know and I’ll put you on the advance notice for the event.

My events are small in nature to allow you an opportunity to participate and ask questions. You are always welcome to just listen or to listen and share.