Posted by: Mackenzie Ross, Conversion-Driven Media Specialist

In a recent article for ClickZ, Harry Gold explored interactive television as a developing technology. As marketers, we are interested in the changing dynamic of the interactive space and always looking out for the latest innovations. It appears that cable and satellite companies are gearing up to make television more interactive using Web-based technologies. The interesting part about marketing interactively on television is the immediate access to your audience while they are engaged.

Much of the technology already exists to make the smooth transition into television and Web integration. The remote in many ways acts as a mouse, with much of the same functionality to boot. Many cable companies actually populate their guides through the Internet to provide users with up-to-date programming information. You may notice that with your cable provider you are able to access Twitter, Facebook, the weather or games. These widgets are connected to the Internet and are available now.

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Posted by: Janessa Seewald, Account Manager

In 2010, social media marketing will push to the forefront of many organizations’ marketing efforts, and it will be important to make ongoing improvements as the landscape changes and becomes more competitive.

Here are some tips to consider when making adjustments to your social media marketing strategy:

• Go where the conversation is happening. You may already have a Facebook page, Twitter account, YouTube channel and more, but it is never too late to cut bait. If your prospects aren’t interested in or accessible within a certain platform, there is no reason to spend time posting content and managing it just for the sake of saying your company “is on Twitter.” It is best to focus your effort on the places where you know you can reach your audience and ultimately generate conversions.
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Posted by: Shannon Anderson, Project Manager

As a fundamental building block to a search engine optimization (or SEO) program, it is important to build strong, qualified incoming links to your website. Here are a few ways to build these links and optimize visibility:

• Submit Press Releases: Submit keyword-rich press releases through newswires and online PR sites, such as PR Newswire and PR Leap, to gain increased online visibility.
• Submit to Directories: Directories, such as DMOZ, are a great way to submit links to your website building quality incoming traffic.
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Posted by: Gloria Dutton, Senior Marketing Coordinator

2009 brought a lot of changes and innovations in the wide world of the Web and its search engines. We witnessed the explosion of Twitter and Facebook and the introduction and advancement of Bing and smartphones. These innovations are forcing search engines to alter what is included in their search results, as well as how these results are displayed. The greatest changes to search that will alter search engine marketing (SEM) programs in 2010 include a new emphasis on personalized search, the inclusion of real-time results, and new methods of local and mobile advertising.

Personalized Search: Google’s personalized search is actually not a new development, but the changes to it at the end of 2009 are. Google uses personalized search to present different search results to users based on their search history and demographics. This alteration of search results used to only occur when users were signed into their Google accounts, but now it has been introduced to signed-out users worldwide. The reason this is important to take into account when optimizing is that your company’s listing may be a first page listing for one user while not even rank for another.

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Posted by: Kerry Houchin, Project Manager

With the release of Google’s Nexus One smart phone, Google has spent some serious time creating innovative mobile search applications. Now on-the-go Android users can search for businesses using the “What’s Nearby” feature and can search for information on landmarks, artwork and other objects using the Google Goggles app.

Here’s how they work:
• What’s Nearby uses the smart phone’s location feature to build a list of the 10 closest places including restaurants, businesses and locations of interest. Since listings are pulled from the Google Local Business Center listings, this reinforces the fact that having a presence in the Local Business Center is becoming more and more important.
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Posted by: Caitlin Diehl, Senior Marketing Coordinator

2009 was another incredible year for Google. Despite new competition, a refreshed search engine from Microsoft and a search partnership that might have made others worry, Google maintained its stronghold on the search market. Here are some examples of what kept searchers on their toes and the competition at bay:

Google Wave
In May engineers released their first demo of Google Wave – Google’s real time communication and collaboration tool. Even though it will not become open to the public until mid-2010, the development and first releases of this new program represent some of Google’s finest work of the year.

According to Google, Wave should be considered a “conversation and a document where people can discuss and work together using richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.” Google suggests using waves for event organization, group projects, photo sharing, meeting notes, brainstorming and even for interactive games. Check out Google’s Wave help pages for information about how the tool works. read more »

Posted by: Janessa Seewald, Account Manager

The latest statistics show that more than 40% of searches within search engines have local intent. For local business owners this means that not only is important to have a website, but to also focus on optimization of your local business listings. Some best practices to consider when developing and optimizing local business listings include:

• Claim your business listing and ensure it is updated. This may sound obvious, but you would be surprised how many listings some businesses already have that they don’t even know exist or are outdated. Claiming the listing you want or that is the most accurate, will allow you to make updates on a regular basis which is very important within the eyes of the local and larger search engines.
• Select the most appropriate categories for your business listing. In most cases you are given several options and can choose more than one category. Make sure you don’t select too many categories as this can dilute the significance of your listing for the most appropriate and relevant categories; however, you also don’t want to select too few categories as this may make it difficult for potential customers to locate your business when searching.
• Include important product and/or service keywords related to your business within the title of your listing. This will not only help increase your rankings within the search engines, but also make your listing stand-out amongst the competition.

Similarly to optimizing a website, optimization of local business listings can take time and involves several more factors than the ones listed above, but starting with these few tips will help start your listing in the right direction.

For the third year in a row, the staff of conversion-driven marketing agency 90octane donated over 150 hours of time volunteering for The Denver Santa Claus Shop — a charitable organization, which in its 79th year has helped nearly 1 million children by distributing free toys to those who might not otherwise have a toy to open at Christmas.

With The Denver Santa Claus Shop’s mission “A Christmas Toy For Every Girl and Boy” over 17,000 children received presents in 2008.  Denver-area families with children up to age 11 were invited through local social service and welfare agencies, as well as charitable and religious organizations, to receive new and gently used toys. 90octane’s employees assisted with distributing toys as well as worked to keep shelves stocked and orderly during the temporary toy store’s busiest hours.

90octane employees Meg Archer, Sean Brunner & Susan Smith ready to hand out toys at this year’s event.

In their second-annual food drive for the Food Bank of the Rockies, conversion-driven marketing agency 90octane collected 1,427lbs of food. Each staff member brought in an average of 40lbs of non-perishable items to provide for Rocky Mountain families in need.

Check out these Food Bank stats:

• 1 in 8 Coloradoans is struggling to meet basic food needs.
• 23% of households have at least one household member in poor health
• 17% of the members of households served by FBR are children age 0 to 5 years
• 48% had to choose between paying for food and paying their rent or mortgage bill
• 12% of households in Colorado are food insecure, or food insecure with hunger

Food donations are needed year round!  Learn how you can help the Food Bank of the Rockies.

Posted by: Kristi Jackson, Marketing Coordinator

As Social media continues to grow and become an important factor within the B2B industry, companies are beginning to realize the importance of claiming their space through tools such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube in order to reach their consumers. However, most companies are not utilizing these tools to their full potential.

Companies often forget the lead generating opportunities that social media tools like Facebook have to offer. One things that B2B companies should keep in mind to increase lead generation on Facebook is to be sure to have links to the company resources that they already have such as email subscriptions, newsletters, white papers, brochures, etc. on their fan page. By placing registration behind these links, companies can start generating leads from their Facebook consumers. Additionally, tracking URL’s can be placed on these links to easily measure leads generated from Facebook.

Because we know that consumers who are coming to a company’s Facebook fan page are typically already interested in the company’s offerings and are looking for more information, it is important to include content that is unique to Facebook and will give these users a reason to continue to come back. One way that this can be done is by providing a special offer to these consumers that they cannot get by going to your corporate website.

Utilizing these ideas for a B2B Facebook page will not only benefit companies by creating another channel for lead generation, but it will also continue to enhance their users experience on Facebook.