When we started building our blogs what now seems to me like a lifetime ago, I thought that all of the features I wanted would be created already! To my surprise they weren't. That's when I decided to have our team build them ourselves.
I wanted a simple blog, capable of quick text and image entry. The big thing for me was broadcasting technologies that would light up the Internet with my blog posts - rather than publishing all my work- then manually entering each of my other social memberships and running through step by step processes of each platform - I dreamed of a blog platform that would publish my information on all the popular platforms.
Think of the time I'd save.
What's more, I'd be contributing to the overall task of automating Internet Marketing for anyone wanting to get the most from their blog posts.
That was then and here we are years later! Our blogs are an integral part of our various social networking properties. Blog owners can easily create as many unique blogs as they want, each one with a static domain name to attract search engine. In addition, we build RSS feeds into each blog entry along with various forms of widgets allowing the entire blog or simple 'news feed' publication on designated or 'public' web sites or blogs. We added the ability to enter email contacts from your Outlook, then mobile contacts so SMS messages can be sent of blog updates.
Last week we added a cool new interface along with the Twitter account updates. Later in the week we added the ability to integrate our own Location Based Galleries - called IMGY into your blog creations.
This week I am pleased to announce the integration of your Facebook account with ThemeGreen member blog updates.
This adds to the capability of building our blog technology into an Internet Marketing powerhouse. If marketers can use our social media tools to enhance their position online, while saving time with our write once, publish everywhere technology, they are in a good spot in this tough economy.
The ThemeGreen Team
Our new blog broadcasting features are sweet! Twitter Updates. Members can now create multiple blogs, chronicle their adventures, travels, whatever while broadcasting features keep their email, mobile and widget contacts up to date. Our member blogs can now auto update your Twitter account with a direct link to full blog details, images and more.
Have you ever been frustrated with Twitter and the lack of detail or images in your Tweet? Updating ThemeGreen member blogs with text and images is so easy. Nowyour Twitter messages can carry rich content at the touch of a button. No fussing with TinyURL entry, account sign in, etc.
Press one button and poof!
IMGY Mini Widgets can now be carried on your Blogs! Our very own location based Google integrated galleries. Member can build their own
interactive maps, then place images on their maps with descriptions for others to comment of collaborate. Widget code allows others to publish on their own web sites or blog to receive immediate updates. Now your Mini widgets can be published on your blogs so there is a central location for interactive updates.See all the feature examples - http://www.themegreen.com/blog/webstager/
.http://themegreen.com/Toba_survey/toba/
Click the image or this link to view the changing weather patterns and marine traffic - including BC Ferries!
http://themegreen.com/webcams/
NEED BETTER BRANDING?
WHO KNOWS ABOUT YOU?
What other people know about you is your brand. Usually it's a cool logo, a useful product or some sitcky commercial. Brands are all around us and the ones with the most exposure are the ones that stand out. What about if no one know anything about your great brand or tell you your look is old and dated? You need better brand awareness.
It's now potentially possible to reach millions of readers and become the voice of thousands using an array of new communications methods. There are so many mediums, so many choices, it's hard to know what is going to produce results. A while back it was Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Pay Per Click (PPC), then MySpace, now it's Facebook and other social media outlets. Lets not forget Email Marketing and Online Press Releases.Today Blogging is all powerful, now, MicroBlogging sites like Twitter are all of a sudden popular and predicted to take over many facits of Digital Marketing.
WebStager specializes in getting the most from these mediums to create the most traffic to your site. We've even developed our own technologies that amplify all of our online traffic attracting processes. Why not talk to us about your goals.
Read thorough some of the Digital Marketing processes that we use to drive more traffic to websites - be it our own Social Networking Platform in the Green space called - Theme Green.com - or our client companies:
Social Networking and Social Media Platforms
With Social Media and Social Networking used by just about everyone, getting the attention your brand needs can only benefit from Social Networking and the various the Social Media services and platforms. It's now possible with all these powerful networks for companies to literally speak to millions of people via social networking and social media platforms. It is now possible with all these powerful networks for
companies to literally speak to millions of people and utilizing WebStager's 'write once and publish everywhere' application tools and platforms, manage the process with minimal effort.
If the chances are something is written about your company on some social networking site, social media platform, blog or what ever - taking charge of your brand starts here. At WebStager, we've been developing social networking platforms and social media applications for a long time. We even operate several of our own member based social networking platforms in the travel and Green Themed areas with 10's of thousands of members. We are able to use our own member platforms that are customized to suite any client's needs as staging grounds for our own social networking and social media development. The point is, we are very passionate about this technology and can quickly determine the right fit in the sea of social for you!
What ever your requirements, we can help you define and implement a productive social networking or social media strategy.
Online Press ReleasesSince PressReleases arepowerful marketing and advertising mediums, there couldn't be a better of a way to add this tool to aid in promoting Brand Awareness.
Did you know that Press Releases are the MOST powerful marketing and advertising on the planet? In our experience, online press releases
combined with email marketing can create a huge surge of traffic. We'd say that press releases are a big part of getting noticed. Combine
Online Press Releases with a press distribution system and you have got a serious media engine capable of delivering a huge surge in business! We figured this out years ago providing online press release services for client companies. We discovered that our manual efforts resulted in
huge increases in online positioning via search engine with a single online press release production. That's when the light came on for us. If our manual efforts at producing press releases (which were mostly repetitive except the content) was effective, if we enhanced our processes and integrated them into our own social networking platforms and social media applications, that would result in a serious platform to attract online exposure.
Talk to us about getting your news automated online.
Creative, Fun Interactive Email Campaigns
The 'Inbox' is still 'the' number one online application. Email marketing, if managed properly still attracts significant traffic. No one pays attention to poor attempts at email campaigns (newsletters) any longer. People want to see fun, interactive, well thought out & relevant email campaigns. Segregating clients email lists into categories of what that customer wants to be alerted is the new eMail marketing code. Customers want to feel that you are personally attending to their individual needs. Gone are the days when email campaigns are so broad stroked that there is no individualization, or personalization. Creating a forward to others with a call to an incentive or promo will definitely get your campaign forwarded from the original sender. Planned properly, well executed campaigns can enhance your SEO efforts and be a keystone in your Digital Marketing efforts.
We have a lot of expertise in Email Marketing plus our own server technology. Ask us how we can help.
SMS Mobile Marketing
In the next few years you will see more & more businesses using SMS (short messaging service, or text messages) marketing initiates & establishing a more cozy one to one relationship with their consumers. Theory is that while your customer base is out & about shopping, or on the road retailers will see the need to send SMS campaigns to your PDA's to let you know why they should come into shop. Last minute sales, promos and just arrived. We are ahead of the curve in this area. Our Social Networking platforms are SMS enabled, plus our Blogs, micro Blogs and IMGY galleries all have SMS Mobile messaging applications already built into them!
Mobile is definitely here to stay.
Contests and Promotions
Funny as it may seem but everyone loves a contest or promotion. Combined with email campaigns these types of activities can create huge traffic. We've build lots of quirky online contests like our 'What's Your Chinese Horoscope' which was combined with a cosmetics web site's products and generated online sales as part of the campaign. Bricks and mortar locations often experience surges in in store traffic. If a contest or online promotion is designed properly it will enhance your search rankings (SEO) or create a viral following like our Grizzly Bear project and our 'What's Your Bear Personality?'
Ask us to show you some campaign examples.
SEO, Search Engine Optimization
There are now more than one billion people online daily & all looking for something. As more and more people get online, search engines are becoming more and more popular. Other than email, search engines are the second most used application on the Internet. These days when people want to learn about something of find out more about a company, they 'Google' them. Search has become the Internet's second most used application (the 'Inbox' is number 1). Most people don' go past the 1st or 2nd page when they type in a keyword or key phrase (what they are looking for) when searching for something online. By optimizing the content & link exchange profile on your web site the search engines will see you as 'relevant & useful' which will translate to more people seeing you online. We have developed an automated SEO processes that takes all the work out of old school methodologies of search engine optimization. One click & your web content automatically spiders the search engines.
Let us show you.
PPC, or Pay Per Click Advertising
PPC are the paid ads that businesses run & they show up on the right hand column (sponsored links) they also show up at the top of the search engines organic listing with a shaded blue or mustard colored background. PPC allows you to control & advertise where your brand or business will show up. A properly run PPC campaign run in any search engine will get you placed ahead of your competition & allows you to get your web presence seen when someone searches for what you have to offer. This requires careful timing, popular keywords that consumers type in & ads that are carefully & wisely created. This, in turn, will increase traffic to your web site.
Creating A Potent Brand Awareness
To generate a strong & sticky online awareness you have to implement many facets to your business. Social networking platforms that are customized, email campaigns, SMS campaigns, automated SEO application, strong & potent graphic and visual art, relevant & searched for web content, properly formatted web sites, interactive mediums that get & keep people interested in your web offering.
Create a reason to keep them coming back.
Blogs, Micro Blogs
Blogs are becoming all the rage and they are an important part of your Digital Marketing strategy. Search engines like what they call original and changing content, and bloggers certainly fill that bill. Search engines also like links to other sites, the more sites that link to your site (from sites that are in similar of complementary businesses) the better and results in better search positioning. Since blogs are a combination of all of these, the more popular blogs are rewarded with higher search recognition. Micro blog sites like Twitter have taken off even more. A short news clip with broadcasting technology to all your friends each time you make an entry while Twitter's widgets deliver news feeds o designated web properties.
At WebStager, we've developed our own Blog, Mirco Blog and Widget technology focused on enhancing a company's social media marketing efforts. We can help you identify the aspects of your social media that are important, then help you implement a program that works. Ask us.
IMGY Galleries & Widgets
Try our location based Imaging app and you'll forever view images and personal galleries in a different light!
Micro Blogging and Widget Applications are revolutionizing the ways creative companies are delivering their message. IMGY is our own location based personal gallery fused with Micro Blog technology. This cleaver application is packed with Digital Marketing tools and captures a number of techniques to deliver your rich media message - or simply create your own location based personal galleries for your customer base to receive updates as you load images.
Take a test drive and create your own IMGY!
As 2009 enters into swing, WebStager, ThemeGreen's parent company unveils bold approach to online promotion. A host of blog and imaging tools have been developed to allow publishers to 'write
once, publish, resonate and distribute news or rich media everywhere'. With so many options available to promote a cause online, it's becoming increasingly more difficult and time consuming to get the job done in a timely manner.
ThemeGreen's suite of auto blogs and IMGY galleries combine many time consuming processes into one low stress module.
Now news or rich media can be quickly broadcast to popular social media sites at the touch of a button. At the same time email or mobile contacts are notified or SMS messages sent to designated mobile users.
Our prediction is that smart companies are going to build their online presences even more to engage their user base and generate additional revenue. Here are some things to consider:
-À Even though consumers are spending less, surveys say people are keeping their cell phones and Internet - which means there will be even more people online.
-À Online Internet usage is surging. Last count over 149 million web properties and close to 1.5 billion users. Expect even more as the reality of a tight economy takes firmer hold.
-À Social Media and online interactivity is now a buzz word ÔÇÿmust have' for every web site.
-À Email or the ÔÇÿinbox' is still the largest used Internet application.
-À Email marketing campaigns if designed and run properly have shown significant returns and revenue increase.
-À Smart marketing companies (like WebStager) are now starting to integrate the email marketing with unique database and social media
applications for even more profit potential.
-À The US Presidential Election was historical indeed for many reasons - one of them in creating an environment that social media was acknowledged as the single factor for the campaign's resounding success.
-À The Democratic campaign's focused use of social media elements resulted in a grass roots movement and record money being raised online.
-À Social media and interactivity are now mainstream and must have for every web property, according to just about every news outlet that
analyzed the reasons for the success.
-À The Internet is evolving as a powerful force for any business these days as traditional advertising methods are becoming obsolete making way for a more engaging and profitable medium.
Traditional advertising formulas - the 4 ÔÇÿP's - product, price, place and promotion - the once keystones of any advertising and promotion campaign from a 1960's era of marketing are now dead. There are new terms evolving defining online success - now referred to as the ÔÇÿ5 C's'.
The Internet has opened up an entirely new realm of instant marketing and collaborative communities. New instant metrics are defining online success.
1, Clicks Now, search engines are delivering users to sites based on their page rank and position in search engines based on the phrases people
key into search engines.
An entirely new science has evolved in the effort to get sites to the top of these search gods. The fate of millions of dollars in online revenue may be at stake prompting companies to look closely to search engine optimization. Search Engine Optimization & Internet Marketing fall into this realm in an effort to attract all important traffic.
2. Commerce While one part of the Internet is measuring traffic or clicks to a site, automation tools are increasingly playing an important part. Ecommerce delivers the ability to sell online while engaging communities that are already customers in meaningful ways (like email marketing) are proving invaluable in delivering results in record online sales.
For companies with bricks and mortar, engaging online communities properly results in increased retail ÔÇÿinstore' traffic. Once thought as a fluke
is now documented fact adding to the value of a well managed email marketing campaigns generate collaboration, commerce, clicks and
community.
3. Community & 4. Collaboration Recently the value of community and collaboration technologies have revealed themselves as part of the mystery of online presence. Social media sites are proving their signifigance while niche communities even in specialty products are proving invaluable in helping generating revenue. Allowing users to share and exchange their ideas, experiences, both positive and negative are increasing sales as people respond to a balanced perspective. WebStager builds custom community and collaboration technologies.
5. Content In order to keep users engaged in a web property plus keep pace with the constant shift of the search engines, We are now seeing rich media such as video, images and even applications WebStager has developed as a fusion of the popular Google Maps with image placement, collaboration and community.
Other technologies adding the overall mix called the new Internet are given the name Web 2.0. Web 2.0 allows us the flexibility to create, exchange and share information in more ways than ever before.
The reality of all this interactivity is that there are more opportunities than ever before to attract online traffic.
For creative and innovative publishers that are looking to use this powerful medium to set themselves apart by defining their space online,
WebStager's NewsTools are for you!
The Key to Great Online Advertising Results.
"Advertising is based on one thing happiness. Happiness is the smell of a new car. It's freedom from fear. It's a billboard on the side of the road that screams with reassurance 'whatever you're doing, its ok, you are ok.'" (Don Draper, "Mad Men")
Mad Men is going into a much anticipated season two this fall. Funny that a show based on a 60's era Ad Agency when ad type men were kings of advertising has caught on. So should the message.
Perhaps the message above is conveying a wake up call for any of us focused on making a success of any online presence.
Online advertising for the most part up until now has been all about efficiency and speed - not about entertaining someone or having fun. So far it's been all about the numbers with conversion tracking, visits verse hits ecommerce, database crumbs to track consumer buying habits when they do make an online buying decision combined with tracking your stats in Google Analytics Web 2.0 has given advertisers an incredible set of tools to create portable, localized media experiences. Video, rich media, feeds, games, maps, polls -- the tools are available.
Find cool ways to syndicate your brand experience, create contests or engage your end user. Now there are blogs, micro blogs, widget code, email notifications, instant messaging and even iPhone apps to broadcast your brand - just to name a few. People are starting to use these tools in very creative ways.
As an online and email marketing company combined with being a developer of social media tools and platforms, we've experienced first hand the results of 'fun campaigns'. Surges in online sales, Alexa ranking jumps, applications becoming the focal point of a company's web site, the buzz in the air when something works well! Spin offs are excited clients coming into bricks and mortar stores with genuine excitement after a contest or cheeky email campaign.
Fun is definitely ÔÇÿin' as the formula for fruitful campaigns.
Making fau part of your own online strategy most definitely spells success.