A recent study conducted by Penn State University has concluded that one in five (20%) of Tweets are brand related.

According to MarketingVox, the study examined the value of micro-communications and it’s value of a word of mouth medium. Over half a million tweets were analyzed.

 The study specifically searched and analyzed tweets that mentioned brands in an effort to discover why the brand was mentioned in a tweet – whether it be an invitation for a product review, inform others etc.

 “Businesses use micro-communication for brand awareness, brand knowledge and customer relationship,” said Jim Jansen, associate professor of information science and technology in the College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST) at Penn State. “Personal use is all over the board. It may be right up there with e-mail in terms of its communication impact.”

 The study also revealed that this fairly high percentage of brand related tweets provides companies with a “rich source” of information regarding their wares.

 “People are using tweets to express their reaction, both positive and negative, as they engage with these products and services,” said Jansen. “Tweets are about as close as one can get to the customer point of purchase for products and services.”

 This is interesting evidence given the fact that half of communicators think that Twitter is just a fad and that most tweets are “pointless” babble. It shows that Twitter, when used right, can help build a respected brand, enforce an existing brand, boost sales and provide insight to customer perspectives. How has your business used Twitter?

Posted by Paul under social media & Twitter | No Comments »

Keep things simple, clear the barriers for creativity.
Creativity is often made out to be a nebulous, messy, complicated, difficult thing, and it can be.

But it doesn’t have to be.

The judicious application of simplicity can help someone to create, whether that’s writing, creating art, designing, teaching, starting a small business, or in some other way making ideas take shape into reality.

People who want to create are hampered by complications — tools that are too complicated, projects that are too overwhelming, the distractions of the modern world, too many cooks, too many options, too busy.

Simplify, and many of these problems go away.

Let’s take a brief look at how simplicity can help solve some of the problems of creating:

1. Ideas. It’s hard to find ideas, right? Not necessarily. Simplify things: find vastly different ideas and combine them in a new way. This isn’t the only way to get ideas, but it’s simple and useful.

2. Ideas, again. Instead of finding ways to do more than everyone else, find ways to do less. If your competitor has a coffee shop with a wide array of beverages and food items, narrow it down: offer just one kind of coffee, but make it amazing. “We sell only one thing: the best cup of coffee you’ve ever tasted.” If you’re a blogger competing against writers who cover a vast variety of topics, cover just one, but do it better than anyone else.

3. Clear distractions. One of the biggest obstacles to anyone who wants to create these days is the distractions of the Internet, of email and IM, of meetings and people coming up to us to talk to us, of phone calls and Blackberries and iPhones. Clear these out of the way, so you can focus on creating.

4. Remove complications. Complications get in the way of creating. Find ways to simplify projects, simplify processes, remove barriers, narrow things down, remove choices, but increase focus.

5. Focus on one project till you’re done. This goes against how most people work, and in fact I have a hard time doing it sometimes, as I get excited about several projects at once. But it’s how I’ve been working recently and I can tell you, there’s no better way to create. Clear everything else off your schedule, at least for the moment, and focus on one project. Keep the focus small, so the project doesn’t take more than a week (if it does, break it into more than one project). Then just focus on that one project, until you’re done. It feels great. Now move on to the next.

6. Use one simple tool. For me, I just choose one text editor to write (usually either WriteRoom or TextEdit). The simpler the tool, the better, because full featured tools end up being distracting and you want to fiddle with all the options. A pen and pad are also great. If you must use more than one tool, keep them small and simple.

7. When you’re overwhelmed, focus on less. If the project is too big or complicated or just hard, narrow it down. If you must write a book, don’t focus on the whole book, or even a whole chapter. Just write a section — something you can do in a few hours or less. If you’re starting a new business, don’t worry about getting the whole thing up and running — what’s the smallest amount you can offer at first, the smallest unit you can create? Focus on that.

8. Do just a little each day. If you can write for 20-30 minutes a day, or take a few photos a day, it won’t be long before you’ve created something great. This tip is for those who think they don’t have time to create. It doesn’t have to take all day, and it doesn’t have to be complicated. Just clear 20 minutes and create — do nothing else during that time.

9. Be in the moment, let creativity flow through you. When you are creating, feel free to be messy and don’t worry about perfection and just get it out. The best way to do this is to forget about the past and future, and just focus on the moment. Pour yourself into creating, and let it flow.

10. Whittle. Once you’ve created that crappy first draft, and just let everything pour out, it’s time to edit and whittle. Get it down to simple. See if you can cut out everything extraneous.

11. Show up. The simple truth to creating. You just gotta show up. It might or might not happen, you might or might not create something great, but you sure won’t create a thing if you don’t show up.

Contributed by Zen Habits.

Posted by Paul under All Content | No Comments »

Today, the RTP Designs team took some time to attend Hub Spot’s (via @hubspot) webinar: How to Use SEO, Blogs, and Social Media to Get Found online.

While much of the presentation content was not new to us, some interesting points were discussed and even debated in real time via Twitter.

Here are a few points I found Interesting:

Think of the content you add to your site as an ongoing asset.

We at RTP Designs know content is king, but Hub Spot articulated this in a way that many businesses could relate to in layman’s terms.

Hubspot used the analogy of an asset vault to explain the value of your website’s content. The more you add, the more it grows and the more valuable your asset’s value becomes. When comparing organic SEO (content publishing, blogging etc.) to Paid SEM, it can be said that Organic SEO continuously builds your content asset vault over time while Paid SEM does not. Why is this case? Think about it, after a visitor clicks your PPC ad, the value of that action will not take place again unless you pay. However, after you produce quality content, the results will continue to pay off since it is static.

Businesses that blog have 97% more inbound links than those that don’t.

The figures here say it all. The more content your produce, the more there is to link to, especially if it is quality content. Oh and don’t barrage your visitors with information about your product or service. Focus primarily on their problems, which your product or service should solve.

Hub Spot also discussed the difference between inbound and outbound marketing. Interestingly, they said that PPC was outbound marketing. I would have to disagree on this subject, as PPC ads only show when a visitor is actively searching for something of interest. It is paid inbound marketing, but still inbound marketing nonetheless. @cpenn and myself were in agreement with this throughout the webinar.

Many thanks to @hubspot for a great presentation.

Posted by Paul under All Content & Internet Marketing | No Comments »

The days have passed when a website greeted you with a 45 second Flash introduction loaded with delights like music loops, irrelevant flying shapes and text excerpts from a company’s mission statement.

Web Video has been an emerging trend. In fact, research conducted by Comscore states that “More than 10 billion video clips are viewed online every month — providing companies big and small with an incredible opportunity for cost-effective branding, product display and demonstration.”

With any emerging trend, mistakes will be made. The great thing about mistakes is that if acknowledged, you can learn from them.

Here are a few suggestions when using Web Video in your online campaigns:

1. Lose the flair: Focus on getting your message across, not on unnecessary animated elements. You need to connect with your audience. Only use heavy animation if it aids in conveying your message.
2. Think About Action: What do you want  your audience to do as a result of them watching your video? Make sure your videos are more than informational/credibility statements. Guide your audience and provide them next steps, whether it is a free trial, white paper download or registering for a webinar.
3. Test. Test. Test. Like any Internet Marketing Initiative, it is important to test how your messages convert visitors. Take a couple different takes when you are at the studio. This will save you production costs down the road and give your campaign flexibility for multivariate testing.

If you have any questions about Web Video or your current campaign performance, go ahead and drop us a line. We are here to help.

Posted by Paul under All Content & Internet Marketing | No Comments »