Articles on Pro Blog

This article is a continuation of a topic I am writing on about migrating your blog from a large social platform to your self-hosted WordPress site.  To see the benefits, start here.  This article will walk you through the task of migrating your blogger or old blogspot blog over to your self-hosted wordpress.org site.  As stated…

This article is a continuation of a topic I am writing on about migrating your blog from a large social platform to your self-hosted WordPress site.  To see the benefits, start here.  This article will walk you through the task of migrating your tumblr blog over to your self-hosted wordpress.org site.  As stated in the…

Over the past year, I have noticed more and more companies starting to blog.  Creating a blog for your company is crucial in this day in age.  It not only helps let your customers know what is currently going on with your business, but it also gives them the feeling that they are connected and…

Sales versus marketing, an age old divide. Depending on your organization, how you approach your web presence and communication may look vary different. This particular blog is for you if you are coming from an organization that is primarily sales-oriented. In this case, you may see any online marketing efforts as being chiefly oriented toward:…

I am sure by now everyone knows or has at least heard of search engine optimization (SEO). If you read this blog a lot, you may have already been implementing many of the practices we’ve talked about in the past regarding SEO and SEO tactics. Placing h1, alt and title tags are extremely important to…

So you are a professional in your field, your company has built up a lot of organizational knowledge and experience, you’re overflowing with expertise, information, and materials; how come your customers don’t just demand you and only you? And with such a strong focus on quality content (and  a constant stream of lots of it!)…

Why do you get online? A reporter from Pew Research Center for Internet and American Life found that about 53% of young adult ages 18 to 29 go online on any given day for no particular reason except to pass the time and have fun.  About 81% of people said that they have done this…

This week, a lot has been made of the Jay Cutler incident. If you are not familiar with it, or if you are wondering how this relates to a social media article, bear with me as I review some of the details, and we can talk social media in a minute:

Google +, people everywhere are asking…is it worth setting up? Better than Facebook? What is it? In our last blog about Google and their recent Plus ventures, we highlighted the search related feature of Google + 1 (see last blog here). This blog will take an in depth look at what Google + the new…

By now I am sure you’ve heard the chatter about the latest and greatest competitor to Facebook…Google +…BUT few noticed that a  similarly named product launched right before their new massive Social Network… which was Google +1. So what’s the difference between both of these new products by Google? What are they all about? What…

The more I have a chance to talk to people about social media, the more I learn myself, specifically about the character of social media. As I try to explain just what this new phenomenon is and means to humanity, and more specifically to businesses, I realize that the definition can’t be simple enough. For…

We’ve been having some great discussions with Companies during our Social Media Definition Tour about how they can better Synergize their Site, Search, and Social efforts. Those three prongs make up the entire spectrum of Web Marketing Context. Your company may have a killer Search engine marketing campaign underway, but what if you had a…

Have you ever spilled your guts to someone and come to find out they weren’t even listening? It’s a terrible feeling, and after you find out they weren’t listening it’s incredibly hard to rewind and try to replicate the authentic moment that just happened. If you miss your opportunity to listen and respond at a…

The Integrated Approach. We talk a lot about this topic with our clients day in and day out when casting vision of the ultimate Utopian Web Marketing Campaign. It’s one of our secret sauces in our consulting kitchen, and I am about to give you this delicious recipe to start trying for free. So what is…

Social Media is where Websites were at in the early nineties. Having a website was the “hot” thing for every business who wanted to keep current with the latest and greatest technology. Everyone knew that they had to have a website, but then they started to think about what makes a good website, or a…

In the recent months, local business marketing consulting has really taken off for Pro 119 in Boise and the Treasure Valley. We wondered what has sparked this trend among local businesses to seek out marketing consulting. Usually your small local business largely markets in a sort of “adapt as you go” manner. The typical small…

So why should your business Blog? More specifically why should your business video blog? Blogging in general lets you create a vital public personae and makes your company more accessible. It lets your customers get to know you by sharing your thoughts online with complete transparency. It also allows both the business and the consumer to discuss, listen,…

This week, a lot has been made of the Jay Cutler incident. If you are not familiar with it, or if you are wondering how this relates to a social media article, bear with me as I review some of the details, and we can talk social media in a minute: In the conference championship…

The goal of this article is to discuss some of the patterns and trends that we have seen locally in Boise in the new media and social media marketing options for businesses focused on an Idaho local target market. Of douse this doesn’t apply to businesses seeking national attention, but may give Treasure Valley businesses…

Every business has a big fat Piñata dangling in front of them. This Piñata represents their dream-come-true perfect online marketing campaign, perfectly planned and executed.  But there are normally some obstacles involved in putting a good thump on this target, and even better, breaking open the wealth of candy inside. Like the typical room full of…

How do you identify a quality social media or new media marketing professional? How can you know you aren’t getting screwed? 3 simple things to look…

This weeks local business tool is focused on FourSquare! By now I am sure you’ve heard of foursquare, its one of the most popular location based social network platforms out there and it’s definitely something to take into serious consideration when looking at your social media marketing options. So what is FourSquare anyway? Straight from…

This is part 1 of a 5 post series on the newest and most important technologies to take advantage of as a small business in order to distinguish your brand online and stand out from the crowd. These tools focus on the goals of: Driving Traffic Being as visible as possible in the online realm Influencing…

Coming Soon! Make your local business stand out from the crowd, use creative online marketing, and drive more traffic through your doors! This will be a 5  part series on new tools that Local businesses NEED to know about and use.

If you are a shopping fanatic, deal hunter, or just want a way to have more fun this holiday season shopping,  here are some Social Technology tools that you need to know about this holiday season. Technologies like Facebook Places, Twitter Check-ins, Foursquare, Yelp, SCVNGR and Gowalla provide the perfect wedding of the avid shopper and…

Lots of us already have customized iGoogle or Yahoo home screens, RSS readers full of stories that interest us, and frequently visit Facebook connected sites that serve up content based off our preferences. This has been around for a while, but it takes some time to set up and demands that you make some initial manual selections about…

One of the common discussion topics that surrounds marketing your business using Twitter, is the question of Quantity vs. Quality. Should you strive for the maximum number of followers as possible, or should you target the right followers and build your klout? I tend to fall on the Quality side of the fence, but its…

Facebook rolled out a brand new addition to their social empire site yesterday. Now not only can you share everything about your life including personal preferences, where you are right now, where you will be, and photos at the same time, but you can now share all of the above focused on “the most holy…

This Blog was created out of a discussion between Nick (project manager/owner) and myself about our work environment and being able to let your “humanness” play out at work. A business should constantly ask themselves “how could we do things better?”. One very important area to constantly ask this question is the area of sales….

Ever wish you had a way to nicely keep track and merge all of your contacts on your phone, email, facebook, twitter, and all of your other go to technologies into one usable platform? Gist is the answer. Gist is an incredibly clean and intelligent contact management system that has some really cool features. Wish…

Social media networks are the intersection of personal use and mass-generated content, giving them an extremely precarious place for business use. As you design web and/or marketing media, it is important to think of the significance of your choices in terms of their social and cultural “meaning” in the marketing context, as opposed to how they support your message. Many businesses make the mistake of…

What is Charisma? Well first of all, it is essential to business, especially small business and sales. We all know someone who is charismatic, and that person comes to mind quickly because part of charisma is that it is memorable. They also come quickly to mind because a charismatic person is often also successful, which…

Where’s the best place to get a hamburger here in Boise, ID? How does the average person seek the answer to this question? Do they dust off the old phone book and plop it down on the counter and start tearing through pages in search of the best looking DEX ad? No people turn to…

Can Social Media sites and services work together synergisticly? Synergy sometimes gets a bad name, but it is a real concept, and it applies to your social media strategy for marketing and engagement. Whatever your goals with Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and other social media, consider how to create synergy with an integrated approach.

Social media and new media marketing play a lot like jazz: organic, interactive performances build as they go, interacting with the audience, environment, and with themselves. This can be difficult if you are used to the structure and perfection of “classical” marketing, advertising, and media performances.

What in the world could ever bring these two people together? If you have social media apprehension, its time to go for it. Social media is not to be feared. It starts with information, skills, and relationships you already have. Just like a phone extends your voice, so social media extends relationships.

Social Media Has Truly Arrived Traditional media is seeing readership and viewership plummet, while web marketing, email campaigns, mobile-phone-based promotions, and other new media outlets are seeing growth soar. We have seen a fundamental shift in the way that we communicate (Mark Poster) The #2 largest search engine in the world is YouTube (Socialnomics.web) Many…