Cruise Control

This sounds like me drinking with friends talking about what magazines are going to look like in the future. Very cool!

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125073451546645129.html

I came across a pretty fascinating article about the future of Twitter coming from the company itself.  Twitter launched a marketing campaign  today to educate users about ways to make money off the popular microblogging site.

This isthe first phase — an educational push — of an effort to generate revenue through various add-on tools and services for the business and professional users of Twitter.

You can view Twitter 101 for Business right here.

Stone said the company will work to educate companies, including mom and pop shops, on how they can use Twitter for their business.

In general, the company will work to position the product as a communication network and less of a social network.  When I first started using Twitter, I didn’t really get it.  I felt like I can do the same thing on Facebook.  The thing that makes it so spectacular is the ability to read opinions on very specific topics nationwide and even locally.  It is most definitely a communication network.

Click to view the full story

Officials from Texas Roudhouse donating a check for the Drew Steele Center.

I received an email this morning from Skip Holtz and Drew Steele about the success of their fundraising campaign and about the future of the golf classic.  We are really going to miss the tournament, auction and dinner!

Thought everyone would enjoy this picture and an update on the Drew Steele
Center.  In three short years we’ve accomplished our goal of raising
$500,000!!  Pretty amazing–and we want to thank all of you-sponsors,
players, and volunteers for making this dream a reality.

We’re going to make a check presentation to the City of Greenville in the
near future for $500,000.This money and hopefully a matching grant that
Greenville Recreation and Parks has applied for will begin Phase I of
renovating the old Elm Street Gym into the new, totally accessible Drew
Steele Center!

We have decided to take this upcoming year to evaluate the needs of the
Center before continuing our fundraising. Given the economic times,
hopefully this will give all of you a little well deserved relief.

However, if you would like to continue to contribute to the drew Steele
Foundation, please go to our web site www.drewskip.com for additional
information.

We’ve had three wonderful events!  Drew, Coach Holtz and myself would like
to truly thank all of you for making each one of them special.

Sincerely,
Skip Holtz        Drew Steele

What a difference a year makes

Fortune Magazine Article: “How Facebook is taking over our lives

I hear from people all the time about how they feel that Facebook is just another fad, and that it only reaches young people.  This article is a must-read for Facebook users and cynics alike.  It gives great insight into the social network’s growth, their future plans and how it can truly change the way we use the Internet.

Here are a few interesting tidbits from the article:

• 175 million people use Facebook
• 70% of these people are outside of the U.S.
• 18-24 year olds now make up less that 25% of users
• people use FB an average of 169 minutes per month (they use Google News just 10 minutes/month)
• The fastest growing demographic on the site is women 55 and older (up 175% since September)

When we write and pitch press releases for our clients we always have a targeted list of journalists that we are trying to reach. Every now and then we have a story newsworthy enough to send via newswire.  I wanted to share some recent successes we’ve had with improving search engine rankings through newswire submitted press releases.

Just before Thanksgiving we sent out a press release for Pitt County Development Commission about a new industrial park that they were announcing in partnership with Martin County. You can read the release for the industrial park here.

About a month later I was researching some of their keyword rankings and noticed that the Landseast news release page on their site shows up on page 1 in Google for the following search terms: “nc industrial park” and “nc industrial parks”. Since North Carolina is consistently ranked as one of the best states for business, these search terms are a high priority for the client.

Why does this happen?

1) The more websites that are linking to you the more relevant Google thinks your site is.

2) Google liked that the news release was being linked to from high traffic websites like Marketwire.com, MSNBC, Google News, Yahoo Finance, etc…

3) Keywords were not only in the body of the press release, but also in the headline: “Martin & Pitt Counties Unveil “First-of-its-Kind” NC Industrial Park

Tips on implementing publicity into your Internet Marketing Plan:

1) Use an respectable newswire service.  Our favorite is www.marketingwire.com.  For $150 you can send your release to almost every paper and TV station in your state, plus they send the release to news websites all across the World Wide Web.

2) Come up with a plan to send 4, 6 or 10 press releases for the year and develop your story ideas ahead of time.

3) Be sure to include relevant keywords in your release and try to work them into your headline.

4) Most newswire services will give you one or two free hypertext links.  Try linking one set of keywords in your release to a related page on your website.

5) Measure your results.  Earlier this month, we sent a press release via newswire about two ADDY awards that our productions company Inspire Productions won.  Before we sent it out we ranked #16 for the term “nc production company”.  Within a couple of days we bumped up to #13 and we’ve maintained that position since.

Rita Thomas and Rob Powers were among 30 people who agreed to advertise Air New Zealand on their bald heads last November. They were paid in cash or free tickets to New Zealand.

If a company paid you to shave your head and put a temporary tattoo on your noggin, would you do it? That’s exactly what 30 people in the California did for Air New Zealand in exchange for round trip tickets or cash. Now is it just me, or does it seem like only a Californian would be involved in something like this? : ) Check out the article.

Would you be willing to sell advertising space on your body?

It is about daggone time that we at Inspire put up a blog.  For the past few months we’ve been recommending blogs to more people than we can shake a stick at and there we were without one.  Earlier this year, my partners and I sat down to discuss a number of things that we wanted to accomplish in 2009 that we have been putting off for years.  Starting a blog was one of them.

Now we’ve done a lot of research about everything you should consider when starting one, and apparently that first blog post is uberly important since it sets the tone for the blog.  We’ve decided to take this opportunity to introduce ourselves (the writers) and give you a little insight into how we started.

If you aren’t familiar with Inspire, we’re one of the many marketing firms that call themselves “full-service”.   Inspire was started in 2005 by Michael Moody, Curtis Thieman, Craig Thieman (yes they are brothers), and myself (Jonathan Medford).  One thing a lot of people don’t know is that we’re all from the Hickory/Lenoir area and are all proud graduates of South Caldwell High School.  Go Spartans!

Michael and I have worked together since we were loyal employees of the now defunct Winn-Dixie.  We were even company computer guys together throughout high school and college summer breaks at Hickory Orthopaedic Center.  Michael grew up racing motorcross.  He’s raced against and beaten the best and he’s been sponsored by everybody.  He hung up his racing helmet to focus on his education and is a graduate of Western Carolina University.  What will Michael be writing about on this blog?  I think we can sum that up with his official business card title, <geek>.  ‘Nough said.

Curtis and I have known each other since middle school but we really formed a closer friendship during  journalism class our senior year.  Our teacher, Ms. Noggle, probably thought we were the last guys in the world that would have a future in communications.  My Uncle owned a marketing firm in Greenville, NC so I was always fond of going to East Carolina and learning the business from him.  I convinced Curtis to take a tour of ECU and the rest was history.  So to all future girlfriends and wives that will have to endure his fanatical love for his East Carolina Pirates, yes, I am partly to blame.

Craig came to live with me in Greenville to start up his production company, Keyframe Productions.  One day Craig realized that he could make more money if he was the one placing the media buys.  So it’s pretty much all Craig’s fault I’m sitting here today writing this blog post.  Back then, Craig was in the National Guard, so our plans were put on hold while he was sent to an undisclosed location in Middle East.  While he was in the top-secret location, he was able to meet the likes of Brittany Murphy, Kid Rock, Gary Sinise, Robert De Niro and yes, the legendary Wayne Newton.  Craig has some war stories that will leave you rolling on the floor laughing.  Maybe I’ll talk him into sharing some of them here.

I think I’ve written enough about myself in this blog that I can skip my own paragraph.  All I want to say is that I am really excited to get this blog going.  Everyday I come across new information that can help our clients and others with their marketing efforts.  I really want this blog to be informative yet fun and we certainly welcome your participation through comments (even if we disagree).  We will  have an approval system for comments so that we can avoid the random Viagra postings.

Please leave us a shout!
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