Favorite About Us pages shares an e-commerce master class video on how to create a great About Us page and asks for your favorite About Us Pages examples.
Great About Us Pages:
* Tell A Story. * Share Values
* Outline a Movement
* Help Build Community
Share your favorite about us pages in reactions (on Scoop.it), comments on the Curagmai post or email martin(at)Curagami.com. Thanks, Marty
4 Principles of A Networked World Macrowikinomics author Don Tapscott shares great examples of his 4 emerging principles of our new digital world including:
* Collaboration.
* Transparency.
* Sharing. * Empowerment
Marty Note I found the discussion of the commons and the example of starling flocking behavior (at the end) the most resonant. I'd heard about the gold mine several times and agree with Tapscott - crowds are the key to our web future.
At Curagami we've been working on what it means to create online community. CTSE (Collaboration, Transparency, Sharing, Empowerment) are the table stakes of this new poker. We would add:
* Communication. * UGC. * Gamification.
Communication within and around the hub is a CSF (Critical Success Factor) for online community. You need to be able to follow and communicate with me and vice versa.
User Generated Content must be listened to, valued and rewarded with gamification or its a one-time "one and done" thing.
Highly engaging presentation. Gone are the days of Security and Reliability as the principles of a Networked world. The C-generation is pulling us to the CTSE world.
Marty Note Great meeting today with our Triangle Startup Factory mentor Kirk Owen (@RKirkOwen). Kirk is a Jedi Master Mentor and Internet marketer. He is working with VC Firm Intersouth Partners (@intersouth) to create an online site to help teach music with a combination of VIDEO and "live" via the web instructors.
COOL idea for ecommerce merchants to adapt especially given results of this study showing higher engagement and more money when video marketing is supplemented by a "live" instructor.
So imagine you are the Bass Pro Shop site. You are learning about new lures from videos and waiting for the Bass Pro to come explain how he matches lures to weather, water and other conditions. Videos helped you learn some features but the "live to the web" presentation via a G+ Hangout or via a streaming service increases engagement and conversion.
Oh, Time on Site goes up to since I bet Bass Pro Shops would find a large audience consuming videos immediately before and after the "live" presentation. Kirk is an amazing IMer, entrepreneur, coach and mentor. Follow him on Twitter and if you are in the Triangle area of NC ask him to lunch and guarantee you will be smarter for it.
Fires happen to every website no matter how careful their overseers. Fires destroy value. Today's online marketing fires are complex and intertwined requiring specialized cross functional teams to extinguish. These teams are called Hellfighters.
Fires happen to every website no matter how careful their overseers. Fires destroy value. Today's fires are complex and intertwined requiring specialized cross functional teams to extinguish called Hellfighters.
Twitter’s video service, Vine, has been around since early this year, but lately it has been getting more attention than ever.
Martin (Marty) Smith's insight:
I'm new to Vine and Instragram, but this great KISSmetrics article outlines why one is better for business. I won't spoil the mystery, but Vine's looping puts so much presure on the creative process I'm betting you can figure out the winner.
This morning's conversation was seriously awesome! Coming together, telling stories, and having a purpose is extremely inspiring. Check out the video to watch the entire talk!
Fun to talk about my favorite topics (Internet marketing, community, saving the world) with such dedicated and smart fellow travelers. Appreciate the invitation and the company : ).M
Internet marketing shares humanity, warts and all, then weaves a sum is greater tapestry where YOURS, OURS and THEIRS lose value or distinction. Here's How.
Martin (Marty) Smith's insight:
Outlaw Josey Wales IM Advice CONTEST What advice do you thihnk the outlaw Josey Wales would give today's Internte marketers? Enter on Atlantic BT's Facebook page:
Don't Piss Down My Back & Tell Me Its Raining Josey Wales had a way of using a few words to say amazing things. The article linked here discusses a company that got their Internet marketing a little right and a lot wrong.
Writing the piece I wondered what other advice the outlaw Josey Wales would share with today's Internet marketers. What do you think? Share your outlaw advice on Atlantic BT's Facebook page:
Robert Wright, Michael Shermer and Yochai Benkler believe we rebel against the one size fits all command and control systems so favored in the forties, fifties and sixties.
William Whyte wrote The Organization Man in 1957. In the last 15 years we've begun to question the "selfish" man model only motivated by extrinsic motivations (the whip, chair, gun or greed). We know we LOVE things and so are willing and happy to GIVE of our time, effort and life.
The New Altruism is being fueled by:
* Social Networks.
* Flat, Global and Connected world.
* Recognition not everyone is motivated by the same things.
* Greater understanding motivation is contextual too.
I've written about The New Altruism since 2007 when no one cared. Now everyone seems to care. And they should because each day brings new cool tools, examples and chances to expand Internet marketing's New Altruism.
316 Million Video Viewers Ignored by B2B Marketers?
Great study by David Rose showing MAJOR brands unprepared for video, sill using flash and looking out of it. Video and mobile are, at least initially, Darwinian. If you have your act together there it helps appear as if your act is together everywhere (whehter it is or not is a real debate). When major brands still have flash, don't sniff that I'm on an iPad or iPhone they appear stupid and out of touch as David points out. Marty
David Rose from MagneTVideo did a great job at our Internet Marketing Meetup in Raleigh. This post summarizes David's "video marketing best practices" and are guaranteed to help you understand how important video is in any Internet marketing mix.
****I've been calling this the video tsunami and believe it is upon us based on my experience as an Ecommerce Director. Marty
TED's head Chris Anderson has a point. In this 18' long video of his live presentation he illustrates why online video may be indeed a truly transformative force as we have probably never seen before.
The ability to see and learn from each other is something we have never been able to do on such a global scale. ...and the effects are pretty amazing.
Silo Effect Interview Great Fareed Zakara GPS interview with author and social anthropologist Gillian Tett today. Tett's book, The Silo Effect, sounds like a must read for web marketers.
I ordered my copy today in anticipation of my drive to Columbus in a few weeks. Tett sounds like a web marketer when she explains the importances of THINKING and the value of random collisions.
Efficiency, the mantra of so many businesses today, can speed up the silo effect Tett explains. Successful web marketing takes a village. Silos are your enemy.
As we note in out riff on the interview on Curagami (http://www.curagami.com/silo-effect-fareed-zakaria-interview/?v=7516fd43adaa ) web marketing is highly tribal and easy to judge the wrong thing as important. As an Ecommerce Director I used to tell my team, "We are going to fly the plane right into the side of a mountain and feel good about the entire way in".
That "Marty saying" was a nod to the web's complexity. Best to judge less and randomly collide more. Great interview and we will report back on the book. If you've already read Tett's book The Silo Effectlet us know what you think.
When Google went public 10 years ago, co-founder Larry Page said he wanted to get his search engine's users out of Google and to the right place as fast as possible. Today, Google is often doing the opposite. WSJ's Rolfe Winkler reports on the News Hub with Tanya Rivero. (Photo: Getty Images).
Marty Note 10 years old Google is moving from search to a content and commerce portal. Increasingly Google wants to be s destination not simply the world leading sieve. Content is king and the king is beginning to emulate one of their subjects - Amazon.
Amazon has been successful at balancing their business between content and commerce. Many Amazon interactions are "rich search" engagements where we use Amazon's reviews or vast scale to teach us something about an online marketplace.
Look at Amazon's nascent entry into streaming video market. Using their loyalty program, Prime, Amazon has the most addictive and best looking streaming option. Amazon's advantage? They SELL movies as well as giving away what feels like about 1/3 of their titles FREE to prime members.
BRILLIANT use of a loyalty program since it reinforces a key benefit, access, and creates a crack cocaine like addiction. When I want to find a movie Netflix doesn't have Amazon is where I go. Lately I even pay to "rent" or "buy" a title too having plowed through free titles.
Now let's turn back to Google and realize that content, search and content are VERY different things. Amazon's use of prime to improve their streaming option into a viable digital marketplace demonstrates the interconnected synergies a commerce & content player like Amazon can achieve.
Can Google become equally as successful at content and commerce? Perhaps, but one need only look at Yahoo's struggles to be both search and content portal to question whether either is sufficiently difficult to demand full attention.
As we search less and differently Google wants to diversify and protect the kingdom they've built. Entering oceans made red with competition as both content and commerce are is a different gig. Will be interesting to see how the king adapts to being a lowly prince.
Even Google wants to escape the old SERPs only Google. Mobile, social and community are changing the web's landscape. Google is watching organic search growth slow thanks to social and mobile. Don't get hung out, diversify your Internet marketing.
Funny How Things Turn Out Every notice things rarely to NEVER turn out how you think or plan them? After creating CureCancerStarter.org, one of the first cancer research crowdfunding websites, it felt like the SEC was about to blow crowdfunding UP.
That feeling was so strong I wrapped up my foundation and left my Marketing Director position thinking CrowdFunde.com would be all about enterprise crowdfunding (what is up on the website now).
Yeah, not so much as it turns out.
Yes the SEC & Google is about to put the three kinds of crowdfunding:
* Rewards (like Kickstarter.com). * Donation (like Kiva.org and CharityWater.org and CureCancerStarter.org). * Equity and debt (where you trade money for shares, should be approved by early summer).
Crowdfunding is so VALUABLE to content marketing and SEO I thought "enterprise crowdfunding" was the way to go. The more I worked the problem the more meshing and mashing is the "lean startup" answer as I share in this video with a cameo from Lucian the crazy cat.
While infographics are touted by some as wonderful examples of making information accessible, in today's Whiteboard Friday, Rand shows us a very different view of them, making the case for using individual visual assets instead.
Martin (Marty) Smith's insight:
Great Rand Fishkinn Whiteboard Friday on why your marketing should think in terms of "visual assets" not infogrpahics.
Fascinating to try to live blog an interview. It is impossible by the way at least for me. I had to stop typing while answering Scotty Mason; Raleigh CBS affiliate WRAL's Tar Heel Traveler's questions.
Scotty is a masterful visual storyteller and I picked up a few tips on this our third session together (Scotty shot a segment about Martin's Ride To Cure Cancer and helped create Cure Cancer Starter's mission video).
Video Storytelling Tips * Don't have questions written down.
* But be prepared and know your subject. * Be open to accident and unplanned ideas.
* Create in the moment on what inspires you.
* Ask great open-ended questions. * If you don't hear what you want ask the same question again later. * Shoot lots of related b-roll.
A live blog of the presentations of three incredible content marketing ninjas at the Raleigh SEO Meetup, 26 March 2013.
Martin (Marty) Smith's insight:
Great Content Is New SEO Event & Live Blog Amazing Live Blog with embedded video from Google Hangout from my friend @MarkTraphagen from last night's Content Marketing Is The New SEO Meetup featuring presentations from @Casieg, @CommsNinja and @ScentTrail. Raleigh's SEO Meetup created and MCed by another friend @1918 who skyped in from Dallas last night.
My Storytelling Is The New SEO presentation is on Slideshare:
You'll remember this day forever. You'll remember where you were. This day has never been closer. Today, thanks to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society hundreds o...
Museums must become more open to what author Lisa Gansky calls "The Mesh". If consumers can't take pictures, consume and mashup a museum's content they are missing the open source future that is right around the mobile phone powered corner.
Martin (Marty) Smith's insight:
Museums Are Stupid Actually museums are brilliant, but most people who manage museums haven't gotten the new social media marketing memo. I was reminded of how out of touch museums can be the other day.
I called our very good small museum, The North Carolina Museum of Art (NCMA), to ask about shooting a marketing video in the museum. Not allowed I was told UNLESS I was a nonprofit.
What? Are you kidding me?
Yes I wanted a beautiful backdrop for our marketing videos, but I also wanted to incorporate (or mashup if you will) several favorite paintings into our marketing discussion. I agree I shouldn't be able to profit from a museum built with my tax dollars, but that is not what I was attempting to accomplish.
The Benefactor = The Museum.
I wasn't going to resell the video or make money from it at least not directly. If I discuss Internet marketing standing in front of their amazing Alex Katz painting and incorporate the work into my presentation what is being advertised more?
Answer = The Museum.
Teaching in our Thank You Economy (great book by Vaynerchuk) is a great way to disrupt, market and share. Teaching at the museum is mutually beneficial. They get free PR and awareness and that is our table stakes in the game or how we repay their willingness to allow us to shoot there.
By being more generous about how their space can be used they INCREASE their awareness, visitors and change their context. Changing the experience of the brand is important to bringing in new people. Most museums are arrogant about shifting paradigms and context.
Museums are the proverbial small fish in a big pond. Even the majors are FLEAS when it comes to marketing. Fleas who could be giants if they take an expansive view of their mission and content. If NCMA allowed filming then I and the others who film there gain a little even as the museum gains more.
Every museum must overcome the notion of being stuffing, elitist and so "not for me" in most people's minds. Museums are so self referential and dependent on the same rich people's support they trip over the mob's millions to pick up the rich guy's quarters.
The real money for any museum is in being seen as OPEN and ENGAGING. We live in hectic times. We consumers reserve our free time for places that are OPEN and ENGAGING such as Starbucks, the movies and the great outdoors.
Museums are stupid if they don't understand a simple truth - they must compete for our attention just like any other brand. Here is the real pity. NCMA is a GREAT small museum and that is the real reason I wanted to ADVOCATE for them.
Their refusal to allow us to film is left over from an old time when copyright laws ruled the land. Not so much anymore because the (c) genie is out of the bottle. I used The Scream by Munch as the visual for this piece because it is a true horror story to museums. Seems someone forgot to do something and Munch's painting of universal angst wasn't protected.
As a result my ex-wife sold an inflatable scream blowup doll. Here is my real lesson for Museum Directors. That doll introduced a new generation of people to Munch's work. The benefits of open source museum-ing are so much greater than its costs that smart museum Directors are already headed to a more inclusive and open ecosystem.
Here is my other important point: In the end, it doesn't matter what YOU want or think becasue open source will win in the end. There is no putting this mashup genie back in any bottle. Museum directors should relax and learn to love our abilit to roll their precious content like a burrito or they will alienate advocates and become the thing museums fear most - becoming an elitist institution with no relevance or meaning to anyone other than themselves.
This is a pair of Levi's®, buttons and rivets and pockets and cuffs, and the thread that holds it together. When the road gets rough and the sky gets jumpy a...
Marty Note Woe is me to the great American brand that was Levis. Levis was more than jeans. Levis was America, apple pie, hamburgers and home. Levis became exportable culture. You could go to Russia with a suitcase of jeans and come home with a pile of cash. Then Brooke Shields didn't let anything come between her and her Calvin Klein jeans. Jeans moved from working class hero to downtown vogue Sheik.
Q: How does a brand recover cool? A: You can't. Once cool leaves the building it runs and you never catch it in the same way again. Power to the marketing team at Levis. Instead of a miserable grubbing beg they broke their own mold and spoke UP to us. First they used Walt Whitman and now they channel Patti Smith.
I am a Smith fan. There is a controversy about how dare Levis channel the singer/songwriter and poet without paying her. People who say that don't really know Patti Smith. Patti wasn't going to sell her work to Levis in this lifetime. Patti was married to Robert Mapplethorpe and she huddled on cold bare floors with little to eat, drink or wear in sacrifice to her art.
That Patti is experiencing a final act uplift in interest, praise and homage is a tiny spark of HOPE in the universe of Justin Bieber (no offense meant). Her estate might sell Patti's work to Levis, but Patti's appeal could be moot by then (though I believe Smith's tone poems will have staying power).
What about the reaction that these ads are trite or hamfisted? I say that too is nonsense. These ads are expressions of the hero with a thousand faces, Joseph Campbell's famous work. Campbell believed all cultures are guided by a handful of similar myths. A hero goes on a journey, discovers enlightenment and returns to change us. These ads are expressions of an ancient well, one that never goes dry.
Here is the thing that those outraged for Patti can take to heart. Patti is being talked about more now than before the ad. Patti will be paid in renewed interest and people wanting to know what all the controversy is about. Since this is the only way to channel Levis money to Patti I am all for it. We support ART in strange ways in this country. Best to chalk this latest example up to our American inability to be seen as listening to or supporting poetry. Music is all good, but poetry is unacceptable.
What about Levis stealing Patti's style? Nonsense, the ad is as much homage as outright theft and, as Picasso said, "Great artists steal, bad artists imitate." There is no stealing from Patti. She was and is much to distinct to ever be stolen from. If these "tributes" introduce an important voice to a new generation because of wearing some denim then I raise my gloved fist into the air in support of an American brand in the hopes they recover their cool.
2011 looks like it was the year that online video hit the big time, according to newly released data from comScore. Average daily uniques rose 43 percent, videos viewed were up 45 percent, and videos per viewer jumped 37 percent.
Unsurprisingly, YouTube accounts for a little over 50 percent of all videos streamed in the U.S. This doesn't fully capture that consumers are increasingly streaming bigger files too, like movies on Netflix, shows on Hulu, and even sports on ESPN. The bottom line is that consumers want to access content when they want it, where they want it. Ultimately, content owners will have to bend to their will and, for video, this means the option to stream online.
YouTube Releases YouTube Analytics: YouTube Analytics now gives you a quick overview and more detailed reports for tracking your audience building and retention statistics
You have the most amazing eye for Infographics. Amazing. Trained as a designer or painter? You are welcome and keep finding these cool ways to understand the world. I just engaged Column Five to create an Infographic for me (for Story Of Cancer). Marty
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